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AMERICA   IN  THE   EAST 


.^. 


WORKS  OF 

William  Clliot  ^ri£K0* 


The  Mikado's  Empire. 

CoREA  THE  Hermit  Nation. 

Japanese  Fairy  World. 

Japan  :  in  History,  Folk-Lore,  and  Art. 

The  Religions  of  Japan. 

Matthew  Calbraith  Perry. 

TowNSEND   Harris. 

The  Romance  of  Discovery.. 

The  Romance  of  American  Colonization. 

The  Romance  of  Conquest. 

America  in  the  East. 


/^rt 


America  in  the  East 


A    GLANCE    AT 


Our  History,  Prospects,  Problems,  and 
Duties  in  the  Pacific  Ocean 


BY 


WILLIAM   ELLIOT   GRIFFIS 

FORMERLY  OF  THE  IMPERIAL  UNIVERSITY  OF  JAPAN,   AUTHOR  OF  **THE 
mikado's  EMPIRE,"    '*  COREA  THE  HERMIT     NATION,"   ETC. 


\ 


^^      OP  TBB  ^'    . 

tJNIVERSIT- 


NEW   YORK 

A.  S.  BARNES   AND    COMPANY 

1900 


w.  '-'Ik    .-■' 


Copyrighty  iSgg 
By  a.  S.  Barnes  and  Co. 


SECOND    EDITION 


John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge,  U.  S.  A. 


I   DEDICATE  THIS   LITTLE  BOOK 
TO   THE 

Memory  of  my  Honored  Friend 
JOHN    LEAVITT    STEVENS 

MINISTER  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  TO  HAWAII,  WHO,  BELIEVING 
THAT  THE  LIVES    AND  PROPERTY  OF    AMERICAN  CITI- 
ZENS    ABROAD     OUGHT     TO      BE     AS     WELL 
PROTECTED  AS    IF  THEY  WERE  AT 
HOME,  ACTED  ACCORDING 
TO    HIS    FAITH 


PREFACE 


Called  to  face  new  duties,  from  which 
they  do  not  propose  to  flinch,  the  American 
people  want  facts  for  guidance.  History  gives 
the  surest  ground  for  prophecy.  I  have  tried 
to  look  our  problems  in  the  face,  and  to  show 
our  past  in  the  Pacific. 

Four  years'  residence  in  the  Far  East,  from 
1870  to  1874,  nourished  and  increased  an 
interest  in  the  Asian  peoples,  which  I  may 
call  hereditary,  because  it  sprang  from  a  line 
of  seafaring  ancestors,  English  and  American. 

When  the  events  of  the  wonderful  and  the 
pivotal  year  of  1898  had  altered  the  trend  of 
our  national  history,  The  Outlook  Company 
wished  me  to  represent  their  enterprising 
journal  in  the  Philippines.  Fascinating  as  was 
the  call,  my  home  duties  would  not  allow  me 
to  accept,  but  to  the  next  request  for  service,  I 
was  glad  to  be  able  to  say  "  I  can  and  I  will." 
So  I  wrote  seven  papers  for  "  The  Outlook  " 


viii  Preface 

showing  what  Americans,  under  God,  have 
done  and  can  do  in  lands  in  or  bordering  on 
the  Pacific.  If,  then,  this  record  of  the  enter- 
prise of  our  fellow-countrymen  before  Dewey 
should  stimulate  patriotism,  arouse  honest 
pride  in  the  continuousness  of  American  work 
and  service  in  Asia,  or  point  the  way  to  pres- 
ent and  future  duty,  the  credit  is  due  to  the 
editors  and  publishers  of  "The  Outlook." 
On  his  own  part  the  author  returns  thanks 
both  for  the  suggestion  and  the  permission 
to  reprint  the  papers  in  a  little  book.  To 
Messrs.  Harper  and  Brothers,  whose  honors 
and  confidence  I  have  enjoyed  since  my 
return  from  Japan  In  1874,  I  return  hearty 
thanks  for  their  permission  to  reprint  from 
"  Harper's  Monthly  Magazine  "  the  article 
on  "Our  Navy  in  Asiatic  Waters."  With 
fresh  matter  Incorporated,  these  studies,  obser- 
vations, and  forecasts  are  herewith  sent  forth 
in  a  revised  and  more  attractive  form. 

W.  E.  G. 

Ithaca,  April  22,  1899. 


OF  THE       '•^K 

UNIVERSITY 

CONTENTS 


Chapter  Page 

I.  The  Signal  Gun  at  Manila     ....  i 

II.  What  is  our  Problem  ? 8 

III.  The  War  a  Revelation 15 

IV.  Can  we  govern  the  Philippines  ?  .     .     .  25 
V.  The  Ancient  Tropic  World    ....  30 

VI.  The  Tropics  in  Modern  Days       ...  37 

VII.  Can  the  White  Man  live  in  the  Tropics  ?  45 

VIII.  The  Anglo-Saxons  join  Hands       ...  53 

IX.  The  Chinese  Empire 58 

X.  Causes  of  Chinese  Decay 65 

XI.  Our  Pioneer  Countrymen  in  China  .     .  71 

XII.  American   Leaven  in  the  Chinese  Mass  8a 

XIII.  The  Old  Japan  of  Hermit  Days  ...  92 

XIV.  The  Coming  of  the  Americans     .     .     .  101 
XV.  The  Missionary  Story 109 

XVI.  Literature,  Science,  and  Diplomacy      .  114 

XVII.  The  Americans  in  Korea 122 

XVIII.  Hawaii  our  New  Possession 125 

XIX.  Our  New  Fellow-citizens 133 

XX.  Orientals  and  Occidentals  in  Hawaii    .  143 

XXI.  Our  Flag  in  the  Waters  of  China  and 

Japan 153 

XXII.  The  Advent  of  American  Power  in  the 

Pacific 160 


X 


Contents 


Chapter  Page 

XXIII.  Glynn,  Perry,  and  Harris     ....  164 

XXIV.  Gallant  Actions  of   Foote  and  Tatt- 

nall IN  China 171 

XXV.      MCDOUGAL      IN      THE       "  WYOMING "      AT 

Shimonoseki 178 

XXVI.    Our  Little  War  with  one  Gun      .     .  188 

XXVII.    A  Brush  with  Formosa  Savages       .     .  192 

XXVIII.    The  Korean  Expedition 195 

XXIX.    The  Historic  Movement  towards  the 

Pacific 203 

XXX.    Trade  and  Markets  in   Asia       .     .     .  211 

XXXI.    Our  Friendship  with  Russia        .     .     .  216 

XXXII.    American  Enterprise  in  the  Pacific    .  219 

XXXIII.  Precedents  and  Resources       ....  226 

XXXIV.  Our   Imperative  Need 231 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

First  Engine  on  the  Seoul-Chemulpo  Railway      Frontispiece 
Townsend  Harris,  First  Minister  to  Japan     To  face  page  14 

The  Crown  Prince  of  Korea,  1899      .      .  ,,  „     28 

Three  Korean  Boys „  ,,38 

Union  Church,  Yokohama „  ,,50 

Japanese  Legation  in  Seoul ,,  ,,60 

High  School  and  Students,  Fukui,  Japan  ,,  ,,     76 
Native    Congregational    Church,    Tokio, 

J^pan „  >,     9* 

The  Japanese  Railway  Engineer,  Ishikawa  „  „  104 
Dr.  Whitney,  Hospital  Staff,  and  Nurses, 

Tokio „  „  116 

Metropolitan  Police,  Korea        .      .      .     .  ,,  ,,124 
John  L.  Stevens,  U.  S.  Minister  to  Hawaii, 

^^92 „  „  14a 

Consulate  of  Japan  in  Seoul       .      .      .      .  ,,  ,,158 

McDougal's  Ship,  the  "Wyoming"  .      .  „  ,,  i8z 

The  Double-ender  Monocacy    ....  „  ,,182 

Captain  Homer  Blake „  ,,196 

North  Gate,  Capital  of  Korea  ....  „  ,,208 

Russian  Legation  in  Seoul ,,  „  ai8 

Independence  Arch  in  Seoul      ....  „  „  226 


America  in   the   East 

CHAPTER   I 

THE    SIGNAL    GUN    AT    MANILA 

FOR  the  people  of  the  United  States,  the 
oceanic  event  of  May  i,  1898,  changed 
their  view  of  the  world.  It  made  the  Far 
East  a  Near  West.  Heretofore  they  had 
looked  at  the  Chinas,  the  Indies,  and  the 
Pacific  spice-world,  eastward,  as  if  through  and 
beyond  Europe.  On  that  day  perspective 
became  prospect.  Now  they  turn  to  see  the 
whole  Pacific  through  their  western  windows 
and  at  their  own  doors.  Hereafter  we  study 
for  ourselves  the  Asiatic  lands  and  waters, 
glad,  however,  to  profit  by  that  older  ex- 
perience of  Europe  which  for  us  may  have  in 
it  "  prophetic  strain." 

What  to  the  world  at  large  is  the  meaning 
of  that  sound  heard  at  Cavite,  May  i,  1898  ? 
Boom  of  bell  or  ring  of  rifled  cannon  may 
mean  nothing  of  itself,  but  some  shots  have 


America  in  the  East 

been  "heard  round  the  world."  Lexington 
and  Manila  have  a  concord  of  significance 
that  foreshadows  change.  What,  to  us  Amer- 
icans, is  the  sequel  of  the  opening  of  Gridley's 
guns  on  the  "  Olympia"  ?  In  what  state  of 
mind  do  they  find  us  ?  What  is  the  prophecy 
of  our  action  ? 

The  Japanese  of  Tokio  tell  us  that  during 
the  lapsing  centuries  the  great  bell  at  Shiba 
has  been  to  the  people  timepiece,  barometer, 
and  guide.  Its  note,  muffled  or  clear,  an- 
nounced the  hours,  but  changed  to  the  ear 
according  to  conditions  of  weather.  The 
interpretation  varied  also  to  the  soul.  In 
youth  it  inspired  hope,  at  man's  estate  cheer, 
in  old  age  warning. 

Are  we,  as  a  nation,  in  childhood,  at  man's 
estate,  or  in  old  age  ?  Do  we  listen  to  cheer 
or  discouragement?  Shall  we  see  in  the 
course  of  events,  as  compelled  by  the  firing 
of  that  shot,  the  hand  of  man,  or  of  God  ? 
Are  we  to  go  forward  or  backward  ?  Shall 
we  hold  the  Philippine  archipelago,  give  it 
back  to  the  Spaniards,  or,  refusing  responsi- 
bilities, trade  it  off  to  some  other  Power  ? 
Are  we  to  cling  to  the  Utopia  of  isolation,  or 


The  Signal  Gun  at  Manila 

yield  to  the  necessity  of  national  expansion  ? 
Does  possession  of  distant  islands  mean  fare- 
well to  the  alleged  traditions  of  the  fathers  ? 
Does  girding  to  new  duties,  facing  of  vexing 
problems,  and  prolonged  hard  work  in  the 
distant  Pacific  mean  "  imperialism "  ?  Or 
does  it  show  faith  in  God  and  in  democratic 
institutions  ? 

These  are  questions  which  confront  us, 
whether  we  like  to  face  them  or  not.  That 
we  are  not  fully  prepared  to  give  answer 
makes  no  difference.  Neither  time,  nor  tide, 
nor  God  Almighty  waits  for  man.  Provi- 
dence got  ahead  of  us,  and  gave  the  signal 
before  we  were  ready.  Nevertheless,  we 
pray,  as  of  old, "  Lead  us  not  into  temptation." 
That  is,  do  not  bring  us  into  difficulty,  or 
where  we  may  do  wrong,  fail,  or  leave  un- 
done, "But  deliver  us  from  evil."  That  is, 
having  got  into  the  difficulty,  or  even,  if  so 
be,  the  wrong,  lead  us  out,  set  us  free,  make 
us  victor,  or  help  us  to  bear  by  giving  grace 
sufficient.  But,  in  any  event,  show  us  what 
we  ought  to  do  and  give  us  courage  to  do  it. 

Yet  Dewey's  was  not  the  first  American 
signal  gun  in  the  Far  East.     On  the  7th  of 

3 


America  in  the  East 

July,  1853,  Perry's  flagship  "Susquehanna," 
the  foremost  of  a  peaceful  armada,  dropped 
anchor  off  the  Yokohama  bluffs  in  Yedo  Bay. 
His  sunset  gun  tolled  the  knell  of  old  Japan, 
and  began  the  raising  of  the  curtain  on  a  new 
panorama  of  history.  Though  the  Commo- 
dore did  not  know  it,  there  was  already  within 
the  country  a  political  earthquake  just  ready 
for  upheaval.  Mighty  energies,  in  operation 
during  three  half-centuries,  were  ready  for 
consolidation.  These  were  soon  to  confront 
the  potencies  from  without,  of  which  the 
American  Perry  was  herald  and  leader. 
Should  both  make  impact  only  for  mutual 
destruction,  or  create  a  new  resultant  of 
forces  ?  The  answer  to-day  is  clear.  A  new 
nation,  leavened  with  Christianity,  girded 
with  modern  weapons  of  war  and  engines  for 
the  victories  of  peace,  with  her  face  to  the 
future  and  every  nerve  quivering  with  the 
delight  and  enthusiasm  of  progress,  stands 
ready  to  share  with  the  Anglo-Saxon  peoples 
the  supremacy  of  the  Pacific. 

So  in  the  Philippines,  latent  energies  long 
gathering  in  force  came  to  explosion  even 
before  the  appearance  of  the  American  Com- 

4 


The  Signal  Gun  at  Manila 

modore.  The  significance  of  this  revolt  of 
natives  has  hardly  yet  been  understood  in 
America.  Even  before  the  arrival  of  one 
American  soldier  on  land,  the  Spanish  system 
crumbled  and'  fell.  Will  the  forces  from 
within  and  without  clash  to  ruin,  or  coalesce 
as  one  ?  Can  any  one  hold  back  the  impetus 
of  the  American  people,  or  suppress  the  ex- 
pansive force  and  sure  trend  of  our  commerce  ? 
Already  we  are  the  greatest  traders  with  the 
Philippines,  next  to  the  British,  while  with 
China  and  Japan  our  traffic  shows  a  steady 
increase. 

On  the  one  hand  is  the  certain  enlargement 
of  our  hopes  and  ambitions,  with  the  control  of 
a  mighty  share  of  the  trade  of  China  and  the 
densely  populated  lands  adjoining  and  archi- 
pelagoes of  the  Pacific.  On  the  other  is  the 
yearning  of  long-oppressed  islanders  for  good 
government  and  for  life  worth  living.  Are 
we  to  have  on  the  soil  of  the  Philippines  a 
permanent  collision,  or  a  new  parallelogram 
of  forces  ?  Better  overrate  than  underrate 
the  FiUpinos.  They  are  not  all  barbarians. 
Lack  of  discrimination  in  dealing  with  Orien- 
tals is  fatal  to  all  success  in  government. 

5 


America  in  the  East 

How  does  Dewey's  victory  make  alignment 
with  other  events,  such  as  use  of  the  magnetic 
needle  on  shipboard,  Columbus's  discovery, 
the  application  of  steam  to  navigation,  the 
opening  of  China,  Japan,  and  Korea,  the 
steady  movement  of  Americans  westward  ? 
Shall  we  answer  such  questions  in  the  inter- 
ests of  selfish  ease,  or  of  a  lust  for  conquest, 
a  thirst  for  imperialism,  with  a  view  only 
to  the  immediate  balancing  of  income  and 
expense?  Or  shall  our  heredity,  unsought 
opportunity  which  seems  providential  invita- 
tion, history,  religion,  convictions  of  duty, 
faith  in  God,  in  democracy,  and  in  ourselves, 
have  also  a  voice  ? 

Whatever  the  ultimate  disposition  of  the 
Philippines  may  be  —  and  we  cannot  well 
see  at  present  how  they  can  come  other 
than  under  American  rule  —  it  is  evident  that 
the  moral  problem  equals  in  importance  the 
political.  The  American  people  will  never 
hold  colonies  in  the  Spanish,  French,  or  the 
abandoned  Dutch  or  British  style.  Slavery  is 
over.  Forced  labor  of  natives  can  no  longer 
be,  for  we  are  mostly  of  the  "  Anglo-Saxon  " 
breed ;    our    political    morals    recognize    that 

6 


The  Signal  Gun  at  Manila 

revolutions  do  not  go  backward.  Bad  history- 
does  not  repeat  itself,  when  a  better  conscience 
rules.  The  Philippines,  if  under  the  Ameri- 
can flag,  will  never  be  a  mere  "plantation" 
or  "  possession  "  to  be  worked  only  for  the 
profit  of  the  conquerors.  American  accept- 
ance means  a  sacred  trust  in  the  interests  of 
civilization,  and  the  education  and  elevation 
of  the  natives,  whatever  their  creed,  color,  or 
previous  condition,  to  the  status  of  intelligent 
freemen.  It  is  impossible  to  consider  the 
problem  as  political  only.  Ours  must  be  at 
least  the  newer  English  way  ;  and  better,  if 
possible.  The  American  flag  over  the  Philip- 
pines must,  will,  be  a  "  symbol  of  light  and 
law." 

JP  OP  THK  ^'    .       , 

tXNlVERsiTY 


CHAPTER    II 

WHAT    IS    OUR    PROBLEM  ? 

WHAT  is  the  problem  ?  Let  us  look 
first  at  ourselves  and  our  moral  and 
political  resources.  To  help  us  in  this, 
history  gives  guideboards  pointing  to.  the 
future.  Here  is  a  nation,  true  child  of 
the  Reformation,  and  the  heir  of  the  Dutch 
revolt  against  Spain  and  of  the  centuries 
of  British  liberty.  Its  soil  was  won  by 
revolution,  or,  more  exactly,  by  resisting 
revolution  from  without.  In  the  necessary 
war  which  secured  union  of  States,  it  was  led 
by  a  man  who,  as  an  English  subject,  had 
been  a  thorough  believer  in  a  right  interpre- 
tation of  the  doctrine  of  national  expansion, 
and  who,  as  an  American,  held  to  the  doctrine 
even  more  firmly.  Washington  was  con- 
vinced that  the  French  had  no  right  where 
they  had  fixed  themselves  —  that  is,  on 
ground  now  covered  by  Ohio  and  Pennsyl- 
vania.     Was    he    a  jingo  ?       He,    with    our 

8 


What  is  Our  Problem  ? 

fathers  who  claimed  to  be  good  Englishmen, 
was  more  obedient  to  the  spirit  of  English 
law  and  freedom  than  were  King  George  and 
his  advisers.  Having  won  in  their  contest, 
Americans  began,  with  the  assistance  of  their 
hardy  pioneers,  to  wrest  the  lands  between 
the  Mississippi  and  the  Pacific  from  the  red 
hunters  and  fishermen  who  refused  to  im- 
prove it,  and  from  the  absentee  landlords  — 
France  and  Spain.  Our  people  obtained  by- 
arms,  diplomacy,  and  purchase  the  territory 
which  is  now  ours,  holding  the  northwestern 
Pacific  coast  through  vigilance  against  British 
claims  and  by  actual  settlement.  They  held 
to  the  dictum  of  Hideyoshi  of  Japan,  that 
"  the  earth  is  the  earth's  earth."  Although 
in  this  world  there  is,  or  can  be,  rarely  such 
a  thing  as  absolute  righteousness  in  any  act 
of  statecraft,  they  tried  to  act  as  honorably 
and  as  justly  as  they  could.  They  have 
made  Hawaii  part  of  the  United  States,  with 
the  same  motives.  Now  that,  without  any 
expectation  or  previous  desire,  or  by  taking 
any  means  except  those  in  obedience  to  the 
laws  of  nations,  even  of  necessity  —  the  same 
that  drove  the  Beggars  of  the  Sea  to  capture 


America  in  the  East 

Brill  —  they  have  obtained  Manila  and  virtu- 
ally the  Philippine  archipelago,  can  the 
momentum  of  over  a  century  be  stopped? 
Ought  it  to  be  checked? 

Supposing  that,  through  arms  and  diplo- 
macy, the  ownership  of  the  whole  archipelago 
has  become  vested  in  the  United  States,  and 
our  flag  is  hoisted  over  it,  from  the  Bashee 
Islands  to  Tawee-Tawee,  the  problem  is  one 
which  promises  to  tax  our  resources  and  test 
our  ability  to  rule  alien  races.  It  is  to  gov- 
ern eight  or  ten  millions  of  people  of  many 
ethnic  stocks,  though  mostly  of  the  Malay 
race,  speaking  forty  different  languages.  Un- 
less we  do  not  know  the  character  or  temper 
of  Americans,  the  problem  includes  also  the 
education  and  moral  elevation  of  the  Filipinos 
and  the  sharing  with  them  of  our  privileges. 
No  wonder  we  need  counsel  before  action. 
There  ought  to  be  at  once  formed  a  Colonial 
Association  to  study  the  whole  field,  past, 
present,  and  future.  Yet  it  is  absurd  to  wait 
until  theory  and  practice  are  perfect  before  we 
grapple  with  the  task.  Experience  is  the  best 
teacher. 

These  new  Philippians,  perhaps  yet  to  be- 

lO 


what  is  Our  Problem? 

come  fellow-citizens,  as  even  men  once  slaves 
have  become,  are  scattered  over  hundreds  of 
islands,  though  the  larger  members  of  the 
group  are  not  as  many  as  the  fingers  of  one's 
hands.  The  archipelago  lies  between  the 
Japanese  and  the  Dutch  possessions.  The 
islands  look  like  a  great  breakwater  to  Indo- 
China,  which  is  now  held  by  the  French. 
Commercially,  they  form  the  gateway  to  China. 
They  are  on  the  direct  road  to  India  and  close 
to  Australia.  Can  Great  Britain  afford  to 
allow  these  islands,  adjoining  her  possessions 
in  North  Borneo,  and  not  far  away  from  the 
Australian  Republics,  to  pass  into  the  hands 
of  a  hostile  power  ?  How  will  France  and 
Germany  enjoy  the  sight  of  the  American 
flag  so  near  the  possessions  of  Annam,  and  so 
tantalizingly  far  away  from  any  longed-for  yet 
unobtained  German  colony  ?  Do  the  Dutch 
take  alarm  ?  Will  they  have  to  tax  them- 
selves to  build  more  ironclads  in  order  to 
\  guard  against  further  American  ambition  ? 
^Does  Japan  fear  or  welcome  us  ?  What  diffi- 
culties we  can  conjure  up  ! 

At  home,  even  greater  searchings  of  heart 
go  on.     Can  our  system  of  government  take 

11 


America  in  the  East 

In  the  idea  and  actuality  of  colonial  adminis- 
tration, and  this  at  the  ends  of  the  earth  ? 
What  do  we  know  of  the  natives  ?  Are  they 
improvable  ?  After  three  hundred  years  of 
Spanish  failure,  will  we  succeed?  Can  we 
take  hope  from  the  great  breeders  of  revolt? 
The  Spaniards  have  left  the  Philippines  in 
the  state  of  a  tree  which,  naturally  fruitful, 
has  by  neglect  become  a  great  worms'  nest,  in 
which  swarms  of  crawling,  devouring,  and  fat- 
tened creatures  have  woven  a  horrid  web  over 
leaf  and  branch,  destroying  all  beauty  and 
fruit,  and  threatening  the  very  life  of  the  tree. 
^  Can  we  make  true  reformation  ?  Can  we  edu- 
^  cate  and  lift  up  ?  Can  we  digest  this  mass  of 
barbarism  ?  Have  we  not  had  enough  of  sav- 
agery, ignorance,  and  low  types  of  humanity 
within  our  own  States  ?  Shall  we  be  obliged 
to  fight  our  way  and  subdue  the  natives, 
even  if  Spain  yields  them  to  us  ?  Tremen- 
dous will  then  be  the  difficulties  of  maintain- 
ing navy  and  garrison,  of  keeping  order  and 
administering  government.  Can  we  pay  our 
^expenses  ?  Can  we  ever  hope  to  give  such 
people  American  citizenship?  In  comparison 
with  this  central  problem  of  the  Philippines, 

12 


what  is  Our  Problem? 

the  question  of  holding  or  governing  other 
islands  in  the  same  part  of  the  earth,  such  as 
the  Ladrones  and  the  Carolines,  is  small  and 
subordinate. 

Yet  let  us  beware  of  magnifying  difficulties 
even  to  caricature  and  fright.  It  may  help  us 
to  remember  that  this  is  the  era  of  the  expos- 
ure of  shams.  We  are  learning  the  difference 
between  the  painted  lath  and  the  iron,  be- 
tween the  canvas  fort  and  masonry,  between 
mercenaries  with  fans  and  umbrellas  and  dis- 
ciplined patriots  holding  rifles.  When,  in 
1856,  Townsend  Harris  arrived  at  Hong- 
Kong,  on  the  steam  frigate  "  San  Jacinto,"  a 
Chinaman  brought  on  deck  for  sale  a  "  wild 
cat."  Even  the  epauletted  sons  of  Mars  and 
Neptune  stood  off  nervously  as  the  New 
York  merchant-diplomatist  boldly  proceeded 
to  unwind  the  defensive  coils  of  twine  and 
rope  which  paralyzed  the  creature.  Even 
slight  knowledge  of  zoology  enabled  him  to 
see  difference  between  panthers  and  pussies. 
A  prolonged  unwrapping,  as  of  a  mummy, 
revealed  an  ordinary  roof-scrambler  and  back- 
yard vocalist,  only  too  happy  to  have  her  arti- 
ficial spots  sponged   off,   and,  when  able,  to 

13 


America  in  the  East 

stand  up,  lap  milk,  and  purr.  So,  In  like 
manner,  in  1894,  the  colossal  Chinese  tiger, 
daubed  out  on  paper,  was  shown  by  a  little 
Japanese  army  to  be  a  sham.  Again,  Dewey's 
guns  showed  Spain  in  the  Far  East  to  be  only 
a  painted  Power.  The  once  world-dominators 
of  East  and  West,  China  and  Spain,  are 
now  the  "  broken-backed  tigers"  of  Korean 
proverb. 


14 


TowNSEND  Harris,  New  York, 
First  MUiister  to  Japan. 


1846. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  WAR  A  REVELATION 

DIFFICULT  as  the  problem  is,  the  im- 
aginary obstacles  conjured  up  by  some 
of  our  editors,  politicians,  and  nervous  people, 
who  do  not  seem  to  know  what  Americans  in 
the  Pacific  have  done  and  can  do,  remind  one 
of  the  canvas-dragons  in  a  Chinese  procession, 
or  the  majority  report  of  Joshua's  spies  in 
Canaan.  They  ought  to  scare  no  true 
Anglo-Saxon  who  reads  his  ancestral  his- 
tory, nor  any  man  who  takes  Christianity 
seriously,  nor  any  statesman  who  knows  the 
American  people  outside  of  academies  and 
sanctums. 

Personally,  I  find  myself  unable  to  see  the 
reality  of  the  so-called  impossibilities,  or  to 
feel  the  dreadfulness  of  the  risks  involved. 
To  say  nothing  of  what  British  and  Dutch 
have  accomplished,  see  what  even  Russians 
and  Asiatics   can  achieve :     Three  centuries 

15 


America  in  the  East 

ago  the  Russians  crossed  the  Ural  Mountains 
on  their  march  to  the  Sea  of  Japan.  Mus- 
covites are  able  to  civilize,  in  their  way,  the 
nomads  of  Central  Asia  and  to  make  of 
Siberia  a  second  Russia.  They  did  this 
within  the  period  between  Raleigh  and  Mc- 
Kinley.  The  Chinese  have  been  able  in  less 
time  to  absorb  the  Manchus,  "  the  wild  and 
horsey  Tartars  "  of  the  North,  and  show  to 
the  world  that  the  men  whom  European 
monks  thought  came  up  directly  out  of  Tar- 
tarus are  "  the  most  improvable  race  in  Asia." 
The  Japanese  have  illustrated  the  self-regen- 
erative power  of  even  a  hermit  nation.  If 
we,  the  descendants  in  ideas,  law,  traditions, 
and  largely  in  blood,  of  the  British,  cannot  do 
what  they  have  done,  then  I  confess  to  sur- 
prise and  confusion.  But  what  they  have 
done  we  can  do.  Once,  after  a  snow-storm 
in  the  mountains  of  inland  Japan,  I  wished 
to  push  on  through  a  path  which  my  servant 
and  companions  said  could  not  be  traversed, 
for  it  was  covered  with  snow  too  deep  for 
either  sandals  or  snow-shoes.  "  Impossible, 
impossible ! "  they  cried ;  but  just  then  a 
Japanese  travelling  pedler  emerged  from  the 
i6 


The  War  a  Revelation 

banned  direction,  and,  hearing  the  prophe- 
cies of  negation,  cried  out,  "  Dekimashta  ! " 
(I  have  done  it).  As  he  did  it,  so  did  I, 
taking  dinner  that  same  day  at  the  end  of 
the  route.  "  DeWitt's  Deep"  still  tells  in 
Dutch  waters  how  a  plucky  lawyer,  using 
both  the  lead  and  the  inductive  method, 
could  show  a  path  even  to  sailors  fettered 
by  tradition. 

Dewey's  was  a  signal  gun.  The  war  has 
been  a  revelation,  compelling  Americans  to 
make  themselves  acquainted  with  their  own 
pioneers,  who  have  been  abroad  in  the  Pacific 
since  the  Revolution.  It  is,  indeed,  time  for 
some  Rip  Van  Winkles  to  wake  up  and  look 
around.  The  American  flag  was  carried 
round  the  world  and  American  business  was 
begun  at  Canton  in  China  in  1784.  For  over 
a  century  our  merchants,  sailors,  missionaries, 
diplomatists,  and  navy,  while  acquainting 
themselves  with  this  part  of  the  earth,  have 
made  our  country  known  abroad.  Dewey's 
fleet  and  achievements  were  not  new  things, 
nor,  with  all  due  credit  to  the  Admiral  and 
his  a'ble  assistants,  was  there  anything  espe- 
cially wonderful,  when  we  remember  what 
2  17 


America  in  the  East 

Americans,  with  their  limited  resources,  in 
times  past  had  already  accomplished  in  the 
waters  of  China,  Japan,  Korea,  and  Malayasia. 
Dangers  as  great,  battles  as  wonderful,  vic- 
tories as  signal,  have  been  won  by  the  might 
and  valor  of  our  officers  and  sailors.  Space 
does  not  allow  us,  in  this  first  paper,  to  tell 
the  story  in  detail.  Relatively,  the  con- 
quests of  diplomacy  have  been  as  striking 
and  significant  as  any  which  the  Paris  Com- 
mission of  1898  have  won  or  are  likely  to 
win.  Our  missionaries  have  toiled  and 
wrought,  depositing  the  leaven,  yes,  hiding 
it,  in  the  Oriental  mass  for  the  making 
of  new  nations.  Furthermore,  the  United 
States  already  owns  many  islands  on  the 
bosom  of  the  Pacific,  and  an  amount  of 
territory  in  this  part  of  the  world  which 
shows  that  we  are  far  from  strangers  in 
it,  or  that  in  possessing  and  governing  the 
Philippines  we  should  be  attempting  some- 
thing wholly  novel.  Barber,  Palmyra,  Pros- 
pect, Fanning,  Christmas,  Starbuck,  Penrhyn, 
Swan,  Pitt,  McLeary,  Hull,  and  Enderby 
islands  or  groups  are  ours,  besides  Pago  Pago 
Bay  in  the  Samoan  archipelago,  and  Hawaii, 
18 


The  War  a  Revelation 

with   probably    the    Ladrone    and    Caroline 
Islands.  * 

*  After  Inquiry  at  the  State  and  Treasury  Departments 
for  an  official  list  of  islands  in  the  Pacific  Ocean  claimed  by  the 
United  States,  I  received  the  following  s 

Treasury  Department,  Bureau  of  Navigation, 
Washington,   D.C,  February  24,  1899. 

Rev.   William  Elliot  Griffis,  Ithaca,  N.  Y.  : 

Sir,  —  In  compliance  with  the  request  made  in  your  letter, 
dated  the  20th  instant,  this  office  transmits  herewith  a  list  of 
certain  guano  islands  understood  to  have  been  bonded. 
Respectfully  yours, 

Eugene  T.  Chamberlain, 

Commissioner. 

List  of  Guano  Islands,  appertaining  to  the  United  States, 
bonded  under  the  Act  of  August  18,  1856,  as  reported  by 
the  First  Comptroller  of  the  Treasury,  under  date  of  Decem- 
ber 22,  1885  :  — Baket's  or  New  Nantucket,  Jarvis,  Navassa, 
Rowland  or  Nowlands,  Johnson's  Islands,  Barren  or  Starve, 
McKean,  Phcenix,  Christmas,  Maiden's  Islands,  America 
Islands,  Anne's,  Barber's,  Bauman's,  Birnie's,  Caroline,  Clar- 
ence, Dangerous  Islands,  Dangers  Rock,  David's ,  Duke  of 
York,  Enderbury's,  Farmer's,  Favorite,  Flint,  Flint's,  Frances, 
Frienhaven,  Gardner's,  Gallego,  Ganges,  Groninque,  Hum- 
phrey's, Hemn's,  Lideron's,  Low  Islands,  Mackin,  Mary 
Letitia's,  Mary's,  Mathew's,  Nassau,  Palmyros,  Penhuyn's 
(Penrhyn?),  Pescado,  Phcenix,  Prospect,  Quiros,  Rierson's, 
Rogewein's  Islands  (Roggeveen  ?),  Samarang  Islands,  Sarah 
Anne,  Sidney's  Islands,  Starbuck  or  Hero,  Staver's,  Walker's, 
Washington  or  Uahuga. 

19 


America  in  the  East 

In  plotting  and  mapping  out  the  ocean's 
bottom,  in  sounding  its  deeps,  in  finding  out 
its  tides,  currents,  and  winds,  its  phenomena 
of  air  and  water,  in  surveying  submarine 
plateaus  and  valleys  for  future  telegraph 
cables,  in  accurately  locating  its  islands  and 
measuring  its  landmarks,  in  gaining  knowl- 
edge from  the  Arctic  Ocean,  in  naval  exploits, 
in  punishing  cannibal  savages,  wreckers,  and 
pirates  (in  this  often  joining  hands  with  their 
British  brothers),  the  Americans,  up  to  the 
time  of  the  Civil  War,  were  behind  none  in 
exploiting  this  great  domain,  this  middle- 
earth  sea  of  the  future.  If  the  United  States 
were,  after  the  manner  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, to  claim  the  land  first  discovered  by  her 
own  explorers,  she  would  have  a  mighty  area 
beyond  her  continental  frontier,  and  the  map 
of  the  United  States  of  America  would  be  en- 
larged so  as  to  show  a  large  share  in  the  own- 
ership of  the  earth's  surface.  As  certainly  as 
Russia  claims  Siberia  and  Great  Britain  Aus- 
tralia, so  may  our  Government  call  the  whole 
northwestern  part  of  Greenland,  Lincoln  and 
Grant  Land,  from  the  78th  to  the  83d  degree 
north  latitude,  besides  the  Antarctic  continent, 
20 


The  War  a  Revelation 

estimated  to  contain  2,000,000  square  miles, 
United  States  territory.  How  strange  does 
the  very  suggestion  (as  if  it  were  a  novelty) 
of  our  being  a  World-Power  seem  !  As  a 
matter  of  simple  fact,  the  United  States  in 
i860  were  in  closer  touch  with  the  world  at 
large  then  than  at  any  time  since,  until  this 
wonder-year  of  1898. 

Our  American  explorers,  diplomatists,  mer- 
chants, missionari-es,  educators  in  the  Pacific 
have  not  made  a  failure  of  their  delicate 
and  difficult  tasks.  They  have  shown  what 
American  wit,  grit,  pluck,  perseverance,  and 
character  can  do  at  the  ends  of  the  earth,  and 
even  amidst  the  most  unpromising  circum- 
stances, among  savages  and  semi-savages. 
With  all  due  respect  to  our  academic  friends 
in  the  sanctum  and  study,  we  believe  that  the 
story  of  American  triumphs  in  the  Far  East 
affords  a  surer  guide  for  decision  and  action 
than  certain  recent  utterances  which  seem  to 
smell  more  of  the  lamp  than  of  outdoor 
acquaintance  with  facts.  Indeed,  some  de- 
liverances against  expansion  savor  more  of 
weariness  and  despair  than  of  real  insight  into 
the  problem. 

21 


America  in  the  East 

My  own  study  of  hermit  nations,  the  ori- 
gins of  their  blighting  policy  and  the  results 
of  it,  does  not  lead  me  to  recommend  a  like 
course  of  action  to  Americans.  The  dangers 
of  enlargement  are  undeniably  great ;  those 
of  hermitage  are  greater.  We  want  no  na- 
tional foot-binding.  The  forced  inclusion  of 
the  American  people  between  the  two  oceans, 
or  the  exclusion  of  foreigners  and  those  who 
disagree  with  you  in  opinions  or  religion,  is 
suicidal.  At  least  it  seems  to  me  to  show 
timidity,  if  not  cowardice,  to  shrink  at  hold- 
ing land  or  attempting  government  beyond 
our  borders.  It  is  too  much  like  those  church 
fathers  in  New  England  who  feared  for  de- 
mocracy in  church  government  anywhere  west 
of  the  Hudson  River.  It  savors  too  much 
of  the  embargoism  attempted  early  in  this 
century,  or  of  the  dogmatism  of  a  certain  edi- 
tor who  twenty-five  years  ago  in  Yokohama 
showed  me  on  a  map  of  the  world  the  regions 
in  which  Christianity  could  never  flourish  or 
civilization  ever  be  propagated,  or  of  Ben- 
jamin Kidd,  who  preaches  that  white  men 
cannot  live  in  the  tropics. 

In  reality,  our  own  history,  from  Washing- 

22 


The  War  a  Revelation 

ton,  the  soldier  beyond  the  borders,  and  Jef- 
ferson, the  statesman  who  took  over  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  down  to  the  recent  war 
with  Spain,  which  made  a  revelation  rather 
than  a  revolution  in  American  ideas  and  opin- 
ions, is  one  long  romance  of  conquest,  ex- 
hibiting the  victories  of  American  colonization, 
arms,  and  diplomacy. 

Are  we  now  confronted  with  the  responsi^ 
bility  of  governing  and  civilizing  eight  mil- 
lions of  people  once  considered  at  the  ends  of 
the  earth  ?  Yet  now,  in  days  of  steam  and 
electricity,  these  are  but  a  few  days  distant. 
This  call  to  new  duties  comes  in  a  time 
when  the  potencies  of  science,  the  harnessed 
forces  of  nature,  and  the  printing-press  have 
reached  a  development  undreamed  of  a  cen- 
tury ago,  and  when  we  have  among  our  peo- 
ple an  interest  and  an  intelligence  concerning 
foreign  countries  and  races  which  was  un- 
known two  generations  ago.  Now  the  China- 
man is  among  us.  The  once  hermit  Japanese 
is  commonplace  on  our  streets.  The  Korean 
is  in  our  schools.  Besides  our  knowledge  of 
the  Orientals,  small  indeed,  but  wonderful 
compared  with   that  of  our  fathers,  we  have 

23 


America  in  the  East 

hundreds  of  Americans  residing  in  Asiatic 
countries  ;  a  large  proportion,  perhaps  an 
overwhelming  majority,  being  teachers  and 
missionaries.  It  is  evident,  then,  that  from 
the  point  of  view  of  acquaintance  with  Asiatic 
people,  and  also  of  our  increased  equipment 
as  to  mechanical  forces,  we  are  prepared  to  do 
what  our  fathers  could  not  dream  of  doing. 


24 


J 

CHAPTER   IV 

CAN  WE    GOVERN    THE    PHILIPPINES? 

BUT  have  we  the  poHtical  genius  and 
facUities  to  attempt  the  difficult  art  of 
governing  barbarous  or  semi-barbarous  races  ? 
Besides  political  talent,  have  we  the  moral 
reserves  required  for  investment  of  character 
and  influence?  Will  trade  warrant  the  ex- 
pense of  government  ?     Is  it  worth  while  ? 

We  answer  :  Both  the  Dutch  and  the 
British  have  displayed  an  aptitude  for  govern- 
ing Asiatic  peoples;  the  former  in  a  good, 
the  latter  in  a  better  way.  We  are  their 
children.  What  they  have  done  we  can  do. 
Their  history  is  our  mirror.  The  same 
general  elements  in  their  civilization  are  in 
our  own,  and  "  blood  is  warmer  than  water." 
The  Scottish  and  English  educational  method 
trains  individuals  in  self-reliance,  makes  men 
both  independent  and  co-operative,  raises  up 
self-governing  nations,  even  while  it  gives  the 

25 


America  in  the  East 

lower  races  a  chance  to  rise,  for  it  helps  them 
to  do  so. 

In  India,  the  British  people  were  once  con- 
fronted with  the  problem  of  possessing  and 
governing  one  of  the  greatest  conglomerates 
of  nations,  languages,  religions,  and  political 
systems  to  be  found  on  earth.  In  reality, 
there  was  no  India  in  any  sense  of  political 
unity.  The  term  was  only  a  geographical  ex- 
pression. Despite  Macaulay  and  those  insular 
historians  who  are  as  childish  in  their  national 
conceit  as  are  our  own,  no  British  army  ever 
conquered  India  or  held  it.  Yet,  profiting  by 
a  discovery  made  by  a  Frenchman,  that  sepoys 
could  be  used  as  military  allies,  the  British 
made  unity  in  place  of  division,  and  substituted 
order  for  anarchy.  By  dividing  and  ruling, 
by  employing  native  troops,  by  rising  to  the 
necessities  of  the  occasion,  through  reform  of 
their  own  civil  service,  and  through  the  sober- 
ing influence  of  great  responsibilities,  our  own 
kin  beyond  sea  have  been  able  to  hold  nearly 
a  quarter  of  a  billion  of  differing  races  and 
creeds  loyal  to  the  throne. 

In  Insulinde,  or  Island-India,  the  Dutch, 
by  political  ability,  wisdom,  practical  com- 
26 


Can  We  Govern  the  Philippines  ? 

mon  sense,  and  the  correct  use  of  the  words 
"  Allah  '*  and  of  "  Kismet,"  rule  thirty-three 
millions  of  Malays  so  quietly  that  the  world 
in  general  hardly  knows  that  there  is  any 
Insulinde. 

If  they  can  do  so  well,  why  not  we  ?  Is  it 
conceit  or  the  old  Fourth  of  July  spirit  that 
gives  ground  for  this  faith  ?  I  cannot  see,  as 
some  of  our  editors  and  bishops  and  statesmen 
seem  to,  that  Americans  have  not  the  genius 
or  the  ability  or  the  political  virtue  for  under- 
taking colonies  or  governing  the  Philippines. 
Somehow  I  have  a  high  respect  for  the  stamina 
and  general  qualities  of  our  naval  and  regular 
army  officers.  I  even  believe  that  we  have 
some  pure  public  men  with  political  ability, 
and  that  we  have  inherited  at  least  a  portion 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  genius  for  political  science 
and  practice.  The  nation  that  produced  a 
Ward  of  China,  a  Sam  Armstrong  of  Hamp- 
ton, to  say  nothing  of  the  "  fathers,"  ought 
not  to  quail  before  the  task  of  to-day. 

I  believe  in  the  sobering  influence  of  re- 
sponsibility. All  our  great  national  crises 
called  out  able  men  who  would  else  have  been 
"  village  Hampdens.*'     How  differently  is  our 

27 


America  in  the  East 

Fourth  of  July  now  celebrated  from  the  same 
day  in  the  fifties  !  What  a  wonderful  change 
in  the  cast  of  thought,  in  the  orations  and 
editorials,  as  compared  with  those  of  forty 
years  ago  !  Our  national  greatness,  bringing 
increased  burdens  and  more  complex  and  del- 
icate duties,  has  given  a  more  serious  temper 
to  our  thought  and  word.  It  is  true  that 
men  who  live  in  academic  seclusion,  or  along- 
side of  mighty  bosses,  or  who  have  not  seen 
their  own  lines  of  planned  reform  run  as  they 
hoped,  take  dark  views  of  the  future,  imagin- 
ing that  the  American  populace  is  inflammable 
and  hopelessly  boss-ridden.  Some  will  even 
bring  up  Alaska  as  a  not  particularly  encour- 
aging example.  Others  will  argue,  from  the 
mercantile  point  of  view,  that  only  civilized 
men  make  good  customers,  and  that  "  barba- 
rians "  will  not  buy  steel  rails,  optical  instru- 
ments, or  Editions  de  luxe. 

But  we  cling  to  the  idea,  having  seen  it 
often  illustrated,  that,  in  individuals,  societies, 
and  nations,  great  responsibilities  sober  and 
develop  —  in  lads  fresh  from  college,  in 
women  left  orphans  or  widows,  in  maidens 
reduced  in  a  day  from  aflluence  to  penury,  in 

28 


The  Crown  Prince  of  Korea,  1899. 


Can  We  Govern  the  Philippines  ? 

men  many,  and  in  a  Vice-President  engaged 
one  day  in  the  lowest  kind  of  political  truck- 
ling and  vote-buying  quickly  becoming  one 
of  the  most  honored  of  Presidents.  History 
shows  also  what  little  countries,  Greece,  Hol- 
land, Japan,  have  done  under  the  stress  of 
duty  and  danger.  We  have  known  young 
statesmen  in  Nippon  who  expected  to  hatch 
the  egg  of  new  national  life  by  warming  it  in 
the  fire  which  they  had  built,  even  hoping 
within  ten  years  to  make  Japan  equal  to 
Great  Britain.  We  have  seen  also  how  the 
realities  of  responsibility  cooled  and  humbled 
them,  though  they  bated  not  a  jot  of  heart 
or  hope,  but  persevered  even  when  the  awful 
complexity  of  the  problems  was  realized. 

In  any  event,  we  ought  not  to  take  coun- 
sel of  our  fears,  but  rather  of  our  hopes.  The 
wisdom  of  the  discouraged  is  not  wholesome. 
There  are  those  who  lose  the  good  they  might 
win  by  fearing  to  attempt.  A  great  poet  tells 
of  one  who  "  made  through  cowardice  the 
great  refusal."  The  happiness  of  millions 
and  our  own  national  safety  may  depend 
upon  the  courage  and  wisdom  displayed  in 
1899  and  1900. 

29 


CHAPTER  V 

THE     ANCIENT    TROPIC    WORLD 

THERE  is  a  striking  difference  between 
ancient  and  modern  civilization.  The 
former,  though  varied,  was  confined  to  only 
a  few  regions  favored  by  nature.  The  latter, 
looked  upon  as  the  common  property,  or  at 
least  the  possibility,  of  the  whole  race,  tends 
to  a  single  type.  In  the  early  world,  there 
were  many  civilizations.  In  the  future,  there 
can  be  but  one  —  the  Christian. 

Mankind's  early  home  and  development 
were  determined  by  natural  causes.  Only  in 
warm  river  valleys,  rich  in  water,  sunshine, 
fertile  soil,  and  facilities  for  comfort,  was  there 
anything  that  we  can  call  civilization.  On  the 
rest  of  this  planet,  men  roamed  as  nomads 
with  flocks,  were  hunters  and  fishermen,  or 
dwelt  in  caves,  on  piles  over  lakes,  or  on 
islands  in  the  sea.  Their  extant  memorials 
are  now  in  fragments  of  tools  or  weapons 
30 


The  Ancient  Tropic  World 

buried  under  the  soil,  in  shell  heaps  or 
mounds  ;  for,  in  history,  "  life  without  letters 
is  death." 

In  only  four  places  of  the  very  ancient 
world  did  men  rise  to  writing,  the  cultivation  of 
the  intellect,  and  the  expression  of  their  tastes, 
hopes,  and  aspirations  in  art,  architecture, 
and  literature.  These  were  in  the  valleys  of 
the  Nile,  of  Mesopotamia,  of  the  Yellow  and 
the  Yang-tse  and  of  the  Indus  and  Ganges 
Rivers,  —  that  is,  in  Egypt,  Assyria,  India, 
and  China.  The  history  of  primeval  civiliza- 
tion belongs  to  these  four  countries.  The 
Hebrews,  the  Greeks,  and  the  Romans  caught 
the  light  from  the  East  and  reflected  it  west- 
ward and  northward,  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Indo-Germanic  races.  The  Hindus  shed 
more  or  less  glow  upon  central  peninsular 
Asia,  while  China  was  the  mother  of  civiliza- 
tion east  of  the  Ganges.  Speaking  roughly, 
all  civilization  began  within  tropical  or  sub- 
tropical regions,  and  has  moved  northward 
and  southward. 

What  made  the  old  nations  acquainted  with 
each  other  and  attracted  them  to  barter  and 
exchange  of  ideas  and  products  ?  What  first 
31 


America  in  the  East 

started   the  caravan  over  land,  and  sent  the 
daring  mariners  to  sea  ? 

The  answer,  in  outline,  is  clear.  In  the  old 
days  when  human  diet  was  very  simple,  those 
who  rose  to  wealth  and  leisure  craved  variety. 
Merchant  and  mariner  were  tempted  beyond 
the  warm  valleys  and  the  beaten  tracks  to  get 
the  fruits  of  the  equatorial  island  world  in  the 
Far  East.  For  perfume,  attractiveness  of 
person,  delights  at  the  table  and  indulgence  in 
hours  of  leisure,  and  for  the  preservation  of 
the  body  as  the  sheath  of  immortality,  spices 
were  needed.  Tropical  products  first  made 
foreign  commerce.  What,  for  the  most  part, 
are  the  Arabian  Nights'  Entertainments  but 
the  fairy  tales  of  traffic  by  land  and  sea  ? 
They  have  been  gathered  from  India,  Persia, 
and  Egypt.  In  earliest  Bible  story,  we  see  the 
Midianite  merchants  moving  across  the  deserts 
westward,  down  into  Egypt,  the  great  market 
of  the  ancient  world  in  the  West.  They 
bring  balm  and  spicery.  The  smelling-bottles 
and  vials  of  Chinese  porcelain  found  in  the 
older  tombs  in  the  Nile  Valley  were  filled  with 
perfume  from  the  far  Orient.  When  the 
Hebrew  nomads  out  of  Egypt  consolidated 
32 


The  Ancient  Tropic  World 

their  kingdom  and  built  palaces  and  a  temple 
in  Jerusalem,  they  imported  more  than  "  ivory, 
apes,  and  peacocks  "  from  tropical  India.  In 
the  Song  of  Songs  are  enumerated  the  per- 
fumes, powders,  and  spices  which  come  only 
from  distant  Insulinde.  Chinese,  Telugu, 
and  Malay  words  stand  on  the  Biblical  page. 
Silk  and  spice  from  the  Golden  Chersonese 
and  the  islands  adjoining  compelled  Greek 
and  Roman  enterprise  and  carried  temptation 
into  the  minds  of  the  merchants  and  the 
pockets  of  the  wealthy.  In  mediaeval  days,  the 
trade  with  the  tropics  and  spice  lands  gave 
Venice  her  prosperity.  When  the  Portuguese 
discovered  the  Cape  passage,  the  sceptre  of 
commercial  prosperity  moved  westward  to 
Lisbon.  When  the  Hollanders  in  turn 
plucked  from  the  girdle  of  Portugal  the  keys 
of  the  eastern  spice  regions,  Amsterdam 
became  the  most  prosperous  city  in  the  world. 
When  the  Dutch  by  extortion  abused  their 
monopoly,  the  English  formed  their  East  India 
Company,  and  London  rose  to  be  the  queen 
of  the  world's  commerce  —  as  San  Francisco 
is  destined  to  become.  Control  of  the  tropics 
dictates  the  history  of  trade. 
3  33 


America  in  the  East 

The  tropics  include  between  them  all  those 
points  on  the  earth's  surface  over  which  the 
sun  is  ever  vertical.  They  mark  a  great  belt 
on  the  earth's  surface  between  Cuba,  Hawaii, 
and  Formosa  on  the  north,  and  Madagascar, 
Australia,  and  Paraguay  on  the  south,  about 
47  degrees  in  width,  which  is  studded  with 
Micronesia  and  Polynesia,  the  West  and  the 
East  Indies,  the  richest  part  of  Africa,  the 
Spice  Islands,  Central  America,  and  Brazil. 
Cancer  and  Capricorn  are  the  lines  marked  by 
the  turning  of  the  sun,  or,  rather,  where  the 
sun  seems  to  turn,  the  names  being  taken 
from  the  zodiac  signs  in  which  the  sun  seems 
to  be  at  the  time.  These  are  the  most 
northerly  and  southerly  bounds  of  earth's 
space  in  which  the  sun's  rays  fall  vertically. 

North  and  south  of  these  lines  the  sunshine 
is  tempered.  Within  them  the  sun  is  directly 
overhead.  The  tilting  or  leaning  of  the 
earth  upon  the  axis  gives  us,  and  people 
between  the  tropics  and  the  poles,  variety  and 
extremes  of  weather.  Within  the  tropics  are 
the  lands  of  eternal  sunshine,  in  which  weather 
and  climate  are  uniform. 

Between  Cancer  and  Capricorn,  the  conti- 
34 


The  Ancient  Tropic  World 

nent  of  North  America  becomes  attenuated, 
but  its  islands  are  numerous.  Here  South 
America  has  the  bulk  of  its  land,  its  largest 
gulf  and  longest  watercourse.  The  greater 
area,  the  greatest  rivers,  and  the  most  fertile 
lands  of  Africa  are  within  the  tropics.  Half 
of  India,  the  wonderful  Malay  world,  the 
archipelago  of  Spice  Islands,  including  the 
Philippines,  the  Carolines,  and  the  Ladrones, 
are  in  this  zone,  and  so  also  is  nearly  half  of 
Australia. 

In  the  tropic  belt,  animal  life  is  amazingly 
rich,  prolific,  powerful,  and  valuable  to  man. 
Here  also  are  unmeasured  areas  of  forest  and 
jungle,  with  wood  of  every  fibre,  fruit  of  all 
sorts,  the  richest  vegetable  products,  with 
those  gums,  drugs,  and  spices  that  have  for 
ages  fired  the  imagination  and  stirred  the 
energy  of  explorer,  mariner,  merchant,  and 
devotee  of  luxury  and  civilization.  Here,  too, 
are  races  of  men  in  great  variety  as  to  ethnic 
stocks,  language,  temperament,  character,  and 
physique.  The  great  majority  show  outwardly 
the  results  of  long  generations  under  the  sun. 
They  are  swarthy,  black,  or  brown.  Man 
himself  seems  to  thrive  like  a  weed.  Here  is 
35 


America  in  the  East 

the  region  of  extremes  in  intensity  of  human 
passion,  as  well  as  of  oddity  in  animal,  marine, 
and  vegetable  forms  of  life.  Plant,  beast,  and 
man  show  amazing  fecundity.  Here,  too,  on 
the  one  hand,  are  the  things  pungent,  acrid, 
aromatic,  and  perfumed,  growing  from  the 
earth ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  we  have  the 
poisonous  and  the  deadly  in  plant,  beast,  and 
man.  Malaria,  heat,  moisture,  and  climatic 
influences,  intensified,  react  upon  the  human 
being,  making  him  what  he  is.  Above  him, 
in  the  air,  are  potencies,  tornadoes  and  ty- 
phoons, to  which  his  brother  in  the  temperate 
zone  is  comparatively  a  stranger,  while  beneath 
him,  frequent  and  terrible,  are  earthquakes, 
tidal  waves,  and  volcanoes. 


36 


UNlVERsiT^ 
CHAPTER  VI 

THE    TROPICS    IN    MODERN    DAYS 

MIGHTY  indeed  is  now  the  difference 
in  our  knowledge  of  this  world  from 
that  current  in  Columbus's  time.  Then  there 
was  a  great  Sea  of  Darkness.  The  Pacific  was 
unknown.  The  southern  oceans  and  the 
Arctic  waters  existed  only  in  myth  and  fable. 
No  lines  of  faith,  born  of  true  science,  for  sure 
guidance  over  the  deep,  then  encircled  the 
globe  with  their  meridians  and  parallels. 
Now  the  continents  are  unveiled.  The  islands 
are  charted,  the  currents  marked,  the  floor 
beneath  the  sea  is  measured  and  mapped. 
The  law  of  storms  is  known.  Distances  are 
calculated.  There  are  ocean  lanes  and  streets, 
along  which,  as  over  a  ferry,  steady  traffic 
plies  its  course.  The  lines  of  many  a  sub- 
marine cable  have  given  the  world  a  new 
nervous  system.  What  was  once  obstacle  is 
now  easy  highway.  In  fact,  like  the  feather 
which  the  eagle  furnishes  for  the  shaft  that 

37 


America  in  the  East 

brings  it  down,  so  the  very  elements  for  its 
own  conquest  have  been  yielded  by  the  tropic 
world. 

As  the  civilization  of  the  modern  differs 
from  that  of  the  ancient  world,  so  also  does  the 
modern  from  the  ancient  man.  No  longer 
confined  to  the  warm  and  fertile  river  valleys, 
the  civilized  man  pushes  out  into  all  quarters 
of  the  globe,  obeying  the  divine  command  to 
replenish  and  subdue  the  earth.  He  makes 
of  the  ocean  a  pathway,  and  of  the  valley  a 
highway.  He  uses  the  very  resources  of  the 
tropics  to  overcome  their  deadly  blight,  malaria 
and  fever.  The  best  man  will  overcome  the 
most.  In  those  very  regions  once  thought 
most  deadly  to  the  white  man,  and  in  the 
warm  seas  once  unknown  to  him,  the  man 
from  the  islands  of  cold  and  cloud,  the  man 
who  has  been  most  free  to  hear  and  interpret 
the  divine  commands,  has  won  his  greatest 
triumphs. 

Does  it  rain  torrents  in  the  hot  lands, 
where  vegetation  grows  most  rankly?  It  is 
the  very  tropics  themselves  that  supply  the 
best  waterproof  material.  For  ages  the  milky 
sap  of  certain  plants  called  caoutchouc  ran  to 
38 


The  Tropics  in  Modern  Days 

waste  or  was  but  slightly  utilized.  Temperate 
climates  will  produce  it,  but  only  in  the  tropics 
does  it  become  of  economic  importance.  Yet 
not  until  1820  did  the  use  of  this  material 
extend  much  beyond  the  rubbing  out  of 
pencil-marks.  Then  Goodyear,  the  Yankee 
Philadelphian,  after  adding  sulphur,  showed 
its  marvellous  uses.  He  produced  a  substance 
which  for  elasticity,  protection  from  damp  and 
wet,  power  to  endure  heat  and  cold,  and  to 
be  moulded  to  all  forms,  as  well  as  in  appli- 
cation to  manifold  uses,  excels  all  others. 
Physically,  it  is  a  non-conductor,  but  me- 
chanically, it  is  made  the  most  wonderful  of 
all  conductors.  By  it  man  has  been  enabled 
to  surmount  innumerable  obstacles.  To-day 
Great  Britain  alone  imports  twenty-five 
million  dollars*  worth  of  this  article,  which 
enables  the  white  man  to  bear  so  much  better 
than  of  old  the  drawbacks  of  tropical  life. 

Look  at  quinine,  which  missionaries  intro- 
duced to  the  world.  By  killing  the  bacilli 
which  cause  fever,  the  white  man  is  able  to 
live  in  nature^s  steam-bath  at  the  equator, 
under  the  vertical  sun,  in  tropical  jungles,  and 
to  pierce  and  penetrate  Africa  and  peninsular 

39 


America  in  the  East 

Asia  in  every  direction.  In  many  parts  of 
the  world  in  which  it  was  once  considered 
certain  death  for  a  white  man  to  sleep  out- 
doors for  a  single  night,  whole  armies  can  now 
be  quartered.  Indeed,  it  may  be  said  that  no 
region  of  the  earth  is  now  inaccessible.  The 
cannibal,  the  coast  murderer,  and  the  man-thief 
must  give  up  their  game,  for  the  chastising 
European,  with  quinine  in  his  blood,  can  reach 
them.  From  being  frightfully  costly,  it  has, 
through  wide  cultivation,  become  ridiculously 
cheap.  .The  cinchona-tree  has  been  planted 
in  many  countries,  and  its  derivatives  are  put 
to  manifold  uses  on  land  and  sea.  With  pith 
helmet,  havelock,  and  duck  suit,  the  white 
man,  as  soldier,  traveller,  trader,  and  mission- 
ary, braves  the  sun  and  his  enemies. 

Surgical  and  medical  wonders,  once  looked 
upon  as  miracles,  can  now  be  achieved  by  the 
wise  application  of  drugs  and  medicines  pro- 
duced only  in  the  tropics.  Our  hot  drinks 
on  the  table,  which  have  done  so  much  to 
diminish  drunkenness,  to  cheer  but  not  in- 
ebriate, to  advance  noticeably  the  social  con- 
dition of  woman  by  installing  her  in  dignity 
at  the  head  of  the  table  —  to  say  nothing  of 
40 


The  Tropics  in  Modern  Days 

comfort  and  delight  to  thousands — are  the 
products  of  the  tropics.  Coffee  is  now  a 
necessity  rather  than  a  luxury,  and  over 
^75,000,000  worth  is  imported  into  Great 
Britain  yearly.  Tea,  enriching  our  social  life, 
cheering  the  poor,  the  weak,  and  the  aged,  is 
the  gift  of  sub- tropical  regions.  The  Anglo- 
Saxon,  having  first  made  a  most  disastrous 
failure  by  ^  political  application  of  tea  in 
Boston,  took  China's  herb  to  India  and 
Ceylon.  Now,  nine-tenths  of  the  fifty  million 
dollars'  worth  of  tea  imported  into  Great 
Britain  comes  from  India  and  Ceylon.  Cocoa, 
which  a  century  ago  was  a  curiosity,  has  now 
become  in  its  various  forms  the  food  or  drink 
of  millions,  the  British  alone  using  about 
forty  million  pounds  a  year. 

The  fibres  of  the  tropics  enrich  not  only 
the  northern  nations,  but  the  natives  who 
grow  them.  The  modern  wealth  of  Dundee 
comes  from  the  working  of  jute,  which  last 
century  was  a  curiosity  only,  but  of  which 
Great  Britain  now  imports  annually  over 
twenty  million  dollars'  worth.  While  all 
Europe  in  1895  employed  2,500,000  bales, 
the   Bengal  spinners  who  manufacture,  with 

41 


America  in  the  East 

the  aid  of  steam  machinery,  bags,  canvas, 
manila  paper,  etc.,  consume  2,574,000  bales 
of  jute  fibre. 

Cotton  was  once  a  sub-tropical  product,  but 
is  now  cultivated  in  the  temperate  zone. 
Though  its  name  occurs  in  the  Hebrew  Script- 
ures, and  its  home  is  probably  in  India,  it  was, 
until  modern  times,  unknown  either  in 
America  or  China  or  Africa.  In  our  land, 
the  first  centennial  of  its  introduction  was 
celebrated  but  a  few  years  ago.  Yet  such  are 
American  energy,  skill,  and  invention  that  the 
tropics  have  been  almost  utterly  robbed  of 
this  most  useful  article,  and  the  world  looks 
to  America  rather  than  the  hot  lands  to  supply 
the  needs  of  the  race.  Great  Britain  has  won 
a  vast  part  of  her  wealth  from  the  cotton 
industry,  while  the  United  States  follows 
closely  in  the  manufactured  product,  and 
exports  millions  of  pounds  to  Japan  annually. 

Dyestuffs,  drugs,  oils,  and  sweets  from  the 
tropics  keep  our  fleets  ever  on  the  seas.  In 
the  superb  volumes  printed  by  the  Govern- 
ment, entitled  "  Commercial  Relations  of  the 
United  States  with  Foreign  Countries  during 
the  years  1895  and  1896,"  we  find  that  in  the 
42 


The  Tropics  in  Modern  Days 

latter  year  there  were  imported,  among  other 
things  of  tropical  origin,  cinchona  bark, 
cochineal,  logwood  and  its  products,  camphor 
and  gums,  indigo,  licorice,  opium,  sulphur, 
cocoa,  coffee,  jute,  manila  and  other  fibres, 
fruits,  gutta-percha,  ivory,  rice,  silk,  spices, 
sponges,  sugars,  tea,  tin,  tobacco,  mahogany, 
and  other  articles.  These  show  in  detail  a 
wonderfully  assorted  list,  and  exhibit  an 
amount  of  American  commerce  directly  or 
indirectly  with  the  tropics  which  is  surprising 
even  to  one  moderately  •  familiar  with  the 
general  subject  of  our  dependence  upon  the 
earth's  middle  zone  for  comforts  and  necessi- 
ties. Nearly  one-third  of  our  total  imports 
are  from  tropical  regions,  and  the  values  of 
some  of  the  items  are  enormous,  such  as  coffee, 
#96,000,000  (1895) ;  sugar,  #81,486,867;  tea, 
?i353i93334  (1895);  tobacco,  #15,225,920; 
india-rubber,  #19, 1 64,047;  fruits,  #16,0,26, 1 09; 
making,  with  other  articles,  a  total  of  nearly 
#221,000,000.  if  we  call  the  tropical  belt 
sixty  degrees  wide,  then  we  have  a  total  value 
of  about  #250,000,000  of  imports  from  these 
hot  countries  and  islands ;  or  about  one-third 
of  the  entire  imports  for  1895,  —  that  is, 
43 


America  in  the  East 

1731,000,000.  Our  import  trade  is  nearly 
one-half  with  Great  Britain  and  her  colonies ; 
but  of  the  other  half,  I9  6,000,000,  or  nearly 
one-fourth  of  that  half,  is  with  tropical 
countries.  We  trade  with  the  English-speak- 
ing nations  and  with  tropical  peoples  to  the 
extent  of  $1,300,000,000,  and  with  the  rest 
of  the  world  to  the  extent  of  $535,000,000. 
Let  us  now  look  at  the  nation  which,  after 
the  British,  has  been  most  successful  in  colo- 
nization and  in  achievements  under  a  tropical 
sun.  The  Dutch  budget  for  1898  estimates 
the  following  to  be  sold  in  the  Netherlands  : 
Coffee,  $8,640,000;  cinchona,  $48,800;  tin, 
$2,680,000;  and  to  be  sold  in  India,  opium, 
$6,880,000;  coffee,  $3,480,000.  In  1895  the 
trade  of  the  Dutch  East  Indies  reached  a  total 
of  $160,000,000.  The  trade  of  the  Philip- 
pines in  1896  was  estimated  at  $31,500,000, 
and  in  1897,  even  with  the  war  and  disturb- 
ances, $28,876,012,  of  which  $4,488,377  was 
American.  The  British  trade  with  the  West 
Indies,  British  Honduras,  and  British  Guiana 
in  1896  was  $29,500,000. 


44 


CHAPTER   VII 

CAN    THE    WHITE    MAN    LIVE    IN    THE 
J  TROPICS  ? 

MR.  BENJAMIN  KIDD,  author  of 
"  Social  Evolution/*  has  written  a 
suggestive  little  book  on  "  The  Control  of 
the  Tropics."  But  though  we  accept  his  in- 
vitation to  consider  the  importance  of  the 
theme  and  the  duty  of  the  best  type  of  man 
(which  we  consider,  on  the  whole,  to  be  the 
English-speaking  man)  to  occupy  and  control 
the  tropics,  yet  we  are  very  far  from  accepting 
his  notion,  which  he  asserts  and  reiterates  as  if 
It  were  a  dogma  of  science.  He  maintains 
that  the  white  man  cannot  live  in  the  tropics, 
or  be  acclimated  within  them ;  that  to  make 
the  attempt  is  necessarily  a  blunder  of  the 
first  magnitude,  and  that  all  experiments  based 
upon  the  idea  are  mere  idle  and  empty  enter- 
prises, foredoomed  to  failure. 

I  cannot  so  think.     I  believe  with  him  that 
the  idea  of  exploiting  any  tropical  region  by 
45 


America  in  the  East 

regarding  it  primarily  as  an  estate  to  be 
worked  for  gain  must  be  abandoned ;  that 
to  surround  the  regions  thus  occupied  with 
laws  and  tariffs  operating  in  the  exclusive 
interest  of  the  power  in  possession  is  also 
folly  and  a  retrograde  principle.  I  believe,  fur- 
ther, that  to  develop  a  permanently  resident 
European  caste,  cut  off  from  the  conditions, 
political,  moral,  and  physical,  which  have  pro- 
duced the  European,  means  degradation  and 
failure.  The  tropics  must  be  governed  as  a 
trust  for  civilization  and  with  a  full  sense  of  the 
responsibility  of  such  a  trust  involved.  We 
must  respect  native  systems  of  religion,  native 
institutions,  and  political  rights.  Those  who 
administer  the  government  for  us  and  repre- 
sent our  civilization  must  be  kept  in  direct 
and  immediate  contact  with  the  standard  of 
that  civilization  at  its  best.  Even  the  acts 
of  the  government  must  be  within  the  closest 
range  of  continual  scrutiny  of  the  public  mind 
at  home. 

The  modern  man,  with  his  more  complex 
life,  is  even  more  dependent  upon  the  product 
of  the  tropics  than  were  his  ancient  ancestors. 
Yet  it  has  sometimes  been  supposed  that  the 

46 


Can  White  Men  Live  in  Tropics  ? 

tropics  were  never  meant  for  the  white  man 
to  live  in  or  to  greatly  concern  himself  about. 
This  region  of  the  earth  is  supposed  by  some 
to  be  the  white  man's  graveyard.  How  can 
Americans  live  in  the  Philippines,  for  example, 
/where  the  thermometer  stands  on  an  average 
so  far  above  the  record  between  Florida  and 
Maine  ?  Many  regions  in  the  tropics  are  like 
a  steam-bath,  and  the  heat  and  moisture  to- 
gether are  oppressive  apparently  beyond  the 
power  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  to  endure. 

Yet  what  are  the  facts  ?  The  English  and 
Dutch  have  for  centuries  lived  not  only  with- 
in the  tropics  but  along  the  equator.  Some 
of  the  most  brilliant  achievements  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  are  to  be  noted  in  this  region. 
More  wonderful  than  many  a  fairy  romance 
is  the  story  of  the  British  conquest  of  India 
and  of  the  making  of  the  Queen's  highway 
to  India  and  China,  and  the  government  of 
300,000,000  people  on  2,000,000  square 
miles  of  Asiatic  territory,  mostly  tropical. 
Who  doubts  that  within  a  few  years  there 
will  be  a  highway  of  iron  built  by  British 
capital  from  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  to  the 
Isthmus  of  Suez  ?  In  southern  India,  in 
47 


America  in  the  East 

Burma  and  the  Malay  Peninsula,  in  Hong- 
Kong  and  Borneo  and  the  islands  of  the  sea, 
see  what  British  energy  in  government,  edu- 
cation, engineering,  and  irrigation  has  done. 
The  British  hold  their  own  grandly  in  Jamaica, 
Guiana,  and  Sierra  Leone.  In  tropical  regions, 
hundreds  of  missionaries  toil  year  after  year, 
illustrating  gloriously  what  wonders  civilized 
man,  with  common  sense  and  a  knowledge 
of  environment  and  proper  precautions,  can 
achieve  and  endure.  Despite  the  climate  and 
deadly  malaria,  the  venom  of  insect,  reptile, 
and  plant,  and  the  malice  of  evil  men,  thou- 
sands of  men  show  that  one  can  spend  the 
best  working  years  of  the  average  and  even 
of  a  long  life  in  the  tropics.  I  have  myself 
met  scores  and  know  of  hundreds  (including 
a  line  of  seafaring  ancestors)  of  soldiers, 
government  officers,  traders,  teachers,  and 
missionaries,  who  have  done  this  very  thing, 
and  I  have  seen  them,  after  decades  of  ser- 
vice, rosy,  hearty,  and  strong.  The  Scudders 
in  India,  Dr.  Legge  in  China,  and  Dutchmen 
from  Java  are  types  of  achievement.  More 
than  ten  millions  of  white  men  and  their  de- 
scendants are  to-day  settled  within  the  tropics, 
48 


Can  White  Men  Live  in  Tropics? 

laying  the  foundations  of  new  and  possibly- 
greater  civilizations.  With  the  reconciliation 
and  fusion  of  Oriental  and  Occidental  factors, 
and  of  the  contributions  from  tropic  and 
temperate  man  and  nature,  under  the  one 
recreative  force  of  Christianity,  who  doubts 
but  that  "  Time's  noblest  offspring ''  is  yet 
ito  come? 

Nor  have  Americans  shown  themselves  one 
bit  less  able  to  live  and  work  in  the  tropics 
than  their  British  kinsmen.  As  soon  as  op- 
portunity offered,  they,  too,  in  Africa,  Asia, 
South  America,  the  East  and  the  West  In- 
dies, in  Polynesia  and  Micronesia,  have  gone, 
by  ones  and  twos,  or  in  little  groups,  for 
trade,  and  to  labor  for  man's  good  in  the 
name  of  the  Son  of  Man.  It  was  in  tropic 
and  African  waters  that  Matthew  Perry  and 
Andrew  Hull  Foote  demonstrated  that  a  ship 
could  be  made  more  sanitary  than  the  average 
house.  Human  health  on  the  American  mer- 
chant marine  and  the  African  and  Asiatic 
squadrons  of  the  United  States  navy  shows 
that  climate  is  no  bar  to  enterprise  or  hin- 
drance to  endeavor.  We  have  had  for  a 
half-century  hundreds  of  American  mission- 
4  49 


America  in  the  East 

aries  working  in  the  regions  where  the  sun's 
rays  are  vertical.  In  addition  to  their  own 
fertility  of  resources,  their  measures  for  the 
prevention  of  disease  and  danger  and  the  pro- 
motion of  comfort,  and  the  remedies  which 
the  tropics  themselves  provide,  is  their  armor 
of  consecration  and  patriotism  on  the  right 
hand  and  on  the  left.  It  is  the  spirit  of  the 
nations  in  which  the  Bible  is  most  unfettered 
that  explains  their  indomitable  power  of 
achievement.  When  the  mind  is  sustained, 
the  body  can  bear  more. 

It  is  not  alone  the  resources  of  civilization 
which  enable  the  Englishman  and  the  English- 
woman to  excel  all  others  as  empire-builders. 
Look  at  those  streams  of  Scottish  and  English 
people  who  every  year  pass  through  Egypt 
to  India  and  the  distant  East.  Think  what 
nation-makers  they  are  !  Reflect  on  the  moral 
courage  that  sustains  mothers  and  fathers  who 
give  up,  during  eight  or  ten  of  the  most  in- 
teresting years  of  their  life,  their  children  born 
in  the  tropics,  in  order  that  these  may  be 
trained  in  a  more  bracing  moral  atmosphere 
and  hardier  climate,  even  in  the  old  home  in 
the  northern  seas,  before  coming  back,  as  most 
50 


Can  White  Men  Live  in  Tropics? 

of  them  do,  to  earn  the  Queen's  shilling,  or 
the  civil  service  stipend,  or  the  missionary's 
pittance.  Cannot  Americans  do  what  British 
folk  have  done  ? 

We  are  far  from  accepting  the  notion  that 
white  men  cannot  live  in  the  tropics.  Mr. 
Kidd's  dogmatism  here  seems  to  rest  upon 
tradition  rather  than  upon  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  modern  conditions  and  possibilities. 
My  own  observations  and  knowledge,  with 
pretty  wide  acquaintance  with  men  who  have 
lived  and  worked  continuously  under  a  ver- 
tical sun,  lead  me  to  take  an  entirely  different 
view  of  the  problem.  As  matter  of  fact,  the 
modern  man  can,  by  ordering  aright  his  diet 
and  habits,  acclimatize  himself,  especially  if 
he  sustains  his  spirit  with  food  convenient, 
and  draws  upon  the  resources  from  the  tropics 
themselves  which  nature  and  science  have  put 
in  his  hands.  Furthermore,  British  medical 
journals  assert,  with  proofs,  that  neither  in 
theory  nor  fact  is  there  any  sound  foundation 
for  Mr.  Kidd's  belief. 

"The  West  Indies,  which  used  to  be  called 
the  white  man's  grave,  now  rank  among  the 
best  sanatoria.     The  death-rate  of  European 

51 


America  in  the  East 

troops  in  the  tropics,  which  used  to  be  from 
lOO  to  129  per  1,000,  is  now  as  low  as  12  per 
1,000  in  India.  In  Trinidad  and  Barbadoes 
the  sickness  and  mortality  among  European 
soldiers  are  actually  less  than  at  home.  It  is 
hardly  reasonable  to  dispute  any  longer  the 
possibility  of  tropical  acclimatization.  The 
question  has,  in  fact,  been  settled  by  the  sol- 
vitur  amhulando  argument.  What  has  now 
to  be  done  is  to  study  the  means  and  condi- 
tions which  may  lead  us  to  a  complete  victory 
over  the  tropical  microbes,  which  are  the  real 
enemies  to  be  conquered."  Happy  both  the 
fact  and  augury  that,  from  a  sub-tropical  and 
once  hermit  country  opened  by  American 
diplomacy,  has  come  forth  Dr.  Kitasato,  the 
Japanese  bacteriologist,  who  discovered  and 
isolated  the  microbe  which  causes  the  bubonic 
plague  and  the  bacilli  of  tetanus  and  influ- 
enza. 


52 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE    ANGLO-SAXONS    JOIN    HANDS 

HAPPY  also  is  it  that  in  the  tropics  the 
two  great  "  Anglo-Saxon  "  or  Anglo- 
Celtic  peoples  understand  each  other  better, 
join  hands,  and  work  shoulder  to  shoulder. 
In  all  that  relates  to  the  European  system  of 
politics,  in  Old  World  affairs,  the  Americans 
and  British  do  not  pull  well  together  in  the 
same  yoke.  Hitherto  their  differences  have 
been  rather  as  family  squabbles,  because  of 
questions  which  connected  themselves  with 
European  policy.  But  out  in  the  broad 
world  at  large,  especially  during  some  great 
crisis,  or  when  contrast  of  civilizations 
emerges,  as  in  1898,  they  are  one.  Then  the 
deeps  of  old  differences  are  broken  up. 
They  see  themselves  as  friends,  in  a  silent 
alliance. 

Let  us  specify  how,  and  when,  the  Union 
Jack  and  Stars  and  Stripes  have  covered  the 
same    work.      American    commerce    in    the 

53 


America  in  the  East 

Orient  was,  in  its  initiation,  modest  enough. 
It  began  with  carrying  ginseng  to  China  and 
ice  and  apples  to  India.  But  our  ships  were 
ever  in  danger.  For  centuries  past,  and 
until  well  into  the  experience  of  living  men, 
piracy  was  the  scourge  of  the  Eastern  seas. 
The  Japanese  of  long  ago  have  a  gay  record 
in  this  branch  of  industry,  and  so  have  the 
Portuguese,  Malays,  and  mixed  races.  Es- 
pecially in  our  century,  when  the  Chinese 
rascals  —  probably  the  worst  in  the  world  — 
could  get  small  arms  and  cannon  from  Bel- 
gian, German,  and  English  merchants,  the 
whole  southeastern  coast  of  China  swarmed 
with  sea-robbers.  Hong-Kong  was  the  hot- 
bed of  piracy  and  villany.  Head  men  of 
pirate  gangs  resided  there,  and  piratical  junks 
anchored  with  impunity  in  the  harbor.  Many 
of  these  vessels  sailed  in  companies  of  six  or 
ten,  each  mounting  a  dozen  guns  and  with 
crews  of  forty  or  fifty  men.  They  were  thus 
large  enough  and  perfectly  able  to  capture 
the  finest  merchant  vessel  afloat.  Ostensibly, 
they  might  be  honest  traders,  which  made 
them  all  the  more  dangerous.  Indeed,  in 
dull  times,  few  Chinese   junks    could   resist 

54 


The  Anglo-Saxons  Join  Hands 

doing  a  little  piratical  business.  Finally,  the 
English-speaking  nations  addressed  them- 
selves to  the  task  of  utterly  abolishing  piracy. 
Then  Americans  and  British  joined  hands, 
knowing  no  envy,  and  destroyed  the  corsairs. 
In  jeopardy  of  life,  for  the  safety  of  the  seas, 
they  poured  out  their  blood  alike.  There 
stands  to-day  in  Hong-Kong  one  monument 
to  the  memory  of  American  and  British 
sailors  slain  in  suppressing  piracy,  true  mar- 
tyrs of  civilization.  Our  British  friends  have 
taken  up  with  the  custom  of  Decoration  Day, 
and  it  is  a  touching  sight,  at  every  annual 
recurrence,  to  see  marines  and  sailors  under 
the  Union  Jack  and  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
make  one  procession  to  decorate  the  graves 
of  comrades  who  speak  the  same  tongue.  In 
Korea,  Japan,  China,  Siam,  India,  or  the 
islands  of  the  sea,  this  is  seen. 

Slavery  was  once  dominant  in  the  tropic 
regions.  It  is  still  "the  heart  disease  of 
Africa,"  though  the  domain  of  its  existence 
is  being  rapidly  circumscribed.  It  has  been 
killed  on  the  waters  by  united  Anglo-Saxon 
effort.  In  all  the  spheres  of  the  white  man's 
influence  in  Africa,  it  is  lessened  every  year. 

55 


America  in  the  East 

When  the  rails  from  Cairo  to  the  Cape  shall 
have  been  laid,  it  will  not  long  survive.  The 
story  of  American  co-operation  with  Great 
Britain  in  improving  the  slave  trade  off  the 
earth,  and  especially  off  the  ocean,  is  a  noble 
one.  From  the  time  when  Matthew  Perry 
located  Monrovia,  and  with  Foote  helped  to 
lay  the  foundation  of  Liberia,  but  more  es- 
pecially after  the  Webster-Ashburton  Treaty 
of  1842,  our  navy  was  busy  in  the  tropical 
waters  of  Africa  in  capturing  slave  craft  and 
in  policing  the  seas  for  the  destruction  of 
pirates.  In  the  Dark  Continent,  as  in  the 
West  Indies,  we  joined  with  the  British  in 
good  work  for  all  humanity. 

In  a  word,  the  Anglo-Saxon  has  his  foot- 
hold in  the  tropics.  He  has  held  it  during 
three  centuries,  developing  its  resources,  in- 
troducing civilization  and  good  government, 
gradually  modifying  the  most  hoary  of  the 
native  ancient  institutions,  developing  com- 
munication, building  railways,  lighthouses, 
telegraphs,  submarine  cables,  opening  the 
Dark  Continent  to  light  and  hope,  anni- 
hilating slavery,  increasing  mutual  comfort, 
and,  in  a  word,  obeying  the  divine  com- 
56 


The  Anglo-Saxons  Join  Hands 

mands,  for  the  benefit  of  all  nations  and  of 
the  race. 

This  being  their  record  in  the  past,  is  it 
not  probable  that  the  inheritors  of  the  same 
race,  genius,  law,  language,  literature,  and 
religion  will  work,  during  the  centuries  to 
come,  to  keep  open  the  doors  of  trade,  to 
extend  civilization,  and  to  labor  for  the  uplift- 
ing of  humanity  ?  Surely  the  hand  of  Provi- 
dence beckons  to  a  great  work. 


57 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE    CHINESE    EMPIRE 

"  TJETTER  fifty  years  of  Europe  than  a 
XJ  cycle  of  Cathay,"  wrote  Alfred  Ten- 
nyson in  "  Locksley  Hall."  The  fifty  years 
of  Europe  which  this  generation  knows  date 
from  the  revolutionary  year  of  1848.  There 
has  been  reconstruction  of  the  map,  of  gov- 
ernments, and  of  society. 

Yet  scarcely  less  wonderful  is  the  progress 
of  China.  Fifty  years  ago  the  only  nations 
recognized  in  Tien-Hia,  or  All-under-Heaven, 
were  "  barbarian  "  and  "  vassal,"  represented 
in  the  Middle  Kingdom  as  "  bearers  of  trib- 
ute." Surrounded  by  inferior  pupil-nations, 
and  caring  to  know  of  none  others,  all  the 
rest  of  the  world  was  but  as  fringe  and  tassels 
to  the  imperial  robe.  It  took  years  of  diplo- 
matic protest  before  the  character  for  "  bar- 
barian "  was  expunged  from  treaty  documents. 
China  knew  nothing  of  international  law.  The 
Emperor  would  not  recognize  as  subjects  any 
58 


The  Chinese  Empire 

of  his  people  who  had  gone  abroad.  Here 
was  a  nation  of  agnostics,  altogether  too  "  re- 
ligious *'  or  superstitious,  and  know-nothings 
in  politics. 

Here  has  lain  an  inert  mass  of  human 
society,  a  congeries  of  many  tribes,  fused  by 
a  hoary  system  into  social  uniformity,  but, 
even  "  Within  the  Four  Seas,"  speaking  dia- 
lects which  cannot  be  mutually  understood 
by  the  common  people  of  the  different  prov- 
inces. In  point  of  numbers  China  excels  all 
empires,  having  possibly  400,000,000  souls. 
Start  a  mixed  procession  of  the  human  race 
past  your  door,  and  every  fourth  person  would 
be  Chinese. 

Geographically,  the  densest  mass  of  man- 
kind known  on  earth  inhabited  one  of  the 
world's  richest  plains,  through  which  flowed 
fertilizing  rivers  to  the  sea.  Around  this 
swarming  hive,  in  lands  adjoining,  lived  less 
favored  peoples.  Westward  rose  the  vast 
plateau,  dry  and  cold,  called  Tibet,  the  cradle- 
land  of  Asia's  mighty  rivers,  with  eight  or 
ten  millions  of  souls.  A  series  of  sandy 
plains  called  Mongolia,  one-third  as  large  as 
Europe,  populated  by  about  three  millions  of 

59 


America  in  the  East 

people,  rolled  away  to  the  northwest.  North- 
ward was  Manchuria,  out  of  which  came  the 
Tartars  and  the  reigning  dynasty.  To-day 
five  or  six  million  Manchius,  who  have,  since 
A.  D.  1644,  enforced  the  wearing  of  the  queue 
as  token  of  loyalty  to  the  Peking  Emperor, 
govern  all  of  China's  hosts.  Over  these 
grassy  plains  nomads  roamed,  and  they,  with 
the  scanty  townspeople,  now  number  fewer 
than  two  millions. 

Southward  was  Indo-China,  from  Tong- 
king  to  Cambodia,  with  an  area  as  large  as 
Texas,  in  which  dwelt  from  twenty  to  thirty- 
five  millions.  To  the  southwest  were  Burmah 
and  Siam,  partially  under  Chinese  influence. 
There  were  a  few  Chinese  in  the  Philippines 
and  Malay  archipelago,  but  none  as  yet  in 
America. 

The  Chinese  name  of  the  Loo-Choo  Islands 
is  Hanging  Tassels  —  pendant  on  the  fringe 
of  China's  robe.  Formosa  was  claimed  as 
part  of  Chinese  territory,  or  was  at  least  in 
vassalage. 

Over  on  the  right  was  "  The  Little  Sister 
of  China."  "The  Outpost  State,"  Korea, 
with  its  eight  or  ten  millions  of  people,  hang- 
60 


The  Chinese  Empire 

ing  down  like  the  dangerous  appendix  vermi- 
formis  of  the  human  economy,  often  caused 
trouble.  Over  out  in  the  sea  was  Dai  Nippon, 
supposed  to  be  a  member  of  the  Chinese  sys- 
tem,  yet  erratic  and  an  unknown  quantity. 

What  tield  this  great  poliiipal  sy^steiji  tO:i^ 
gether  was  a  very  ancient  b ody  ofj-rr^Hitinn. 
Its  various  applications  to  government,  edu- 
cation, family  and  communal  life,  seemed  like 
the  veins,  arteries,  bones,  and  lungs  of  a  body, 
necessary  to  its  vitality.  One  text  quoted 
from  the  classics  has  more  than  once  stopped 
the  building  of  a  chimney,  factory,  or  even 
weather-vane.  Chinese  education,  social  and 
ethical,  was  the  cement  which  held  these 
various  nations  and  peoples  together.  It 
also  furnished  the  solvent  in  which  all  hostile 
elements  or  foreign  bodies  were  dissolved,  or 
rather  had  been  dissolved.  For  to  the  out- 
side observer,  to  whom  the  Chinese  all  look 
ahke,  and  who  does  not  keenly  discriminate, 
China  seemed  as  fixed  in  its  forms  as  a  min- 
eral mass. 

The  Chinese  Empire  is  threatened  with 
disintegration.  The  heavings  of  rebellion, 
the    mutterings    of    intellectual    storm,    the 

6i 


America  in  the  East 

demands  and  determinations  of  reformers, 
forbode  a  change,  which  shall  be  not  me- 
chanical merely,  but,  as  it  were,  chemical,  as 
though  there  was  to  be  transformation.  In 
Chinese  fairy  lore,  Wang  Chih,  the  Rip  Van 
Winkle  who  entered  the  cave  where  the  im- 
mortals of  the  mountains  were  playing  chess, 
received  a  soporific  in  shape  like  a  date-stone, 
which  made  him  oblivious  to  hunger,  thirst, 
and  time.  That  was  China,  for  centuries  hi- 
bernating in  semi-slumber.  Now  the  date- 
stone  seems  to  have  fallen  out  of  the  mouth. 
The  external  and  phenomenal  changes  are 
startling  even  the  men  v/ho  so  long  dwelt  in 
the  intellectual  cave.  Telegraphs  are  making 
nerves.  Steamships  ply  along  the  coasts  and 
on  all  the  navigable  waterways.  American 
machinists,  engineers,  and  ship-builders,  with 
the  type  of  steamers  familiar  in  our  rivers, 
have  powerfully  stimulated  China's  immense 
inland  traffic  and  commerce.  Railways  are 
beginning  to  knit  the  country  together.  Fac- 
tories, well  equipped  with  modern  steam 
machinery,  are  starting  up.  Mines  of  ore 
are  operated  by  modern  methods,  and  coal 
and  oil  are  brought  to  the  surface  and  refined 
62 


The  Chinese  Empire 

in  Western  ways.  Old  "cash,"  that  weighs 
seven  pounds  to  a  dollar's  worth,  is  giving 
way  to  coinage.  The  printing-press  is  at 
work.  Mathematical  and  scientific  books 
are  in  demand.  Nearly  a  million  copies  of 
the  Bible,  in  whole  or  in  portions,  are  sold 
annually,  and  even  more  in  number  are  the 
tracts  and  booklets.  The  last  five  years  seem 
to  have  begun  an  industrial  revolution. 

There  are  differing  planes  of  culture  and 
grades  of  ability  and  civilization  even  in  the 
Eighteen  Provinces,  as  well  as  in  the  out- 
lying countries.  Chinese  history  shows  that 
nearly  all  natives  of  renown  have  come  from 
the  main  central  region  of  the  Yellow  and 
Yang-tse  Rivers.  This  is  still  the  centre  of 
Chinese  civilization.  Out  of  it  have  sprung 
most  of  the  leaders  of  the  past.  From  it  will 
doubtless  arise  those  who  are  to  be  eminent 
in  the  making  of  the  new  and  better  China 
which  we  hope  is  coming.  In  North  China, 
the  majority  of  the  people  are  ignorant  and 
poor,  and  are  not  given  to  progress  and  en- 
lightenment. In  the  capital,  there  is  apparent 
exception,  because  the  able  men  come  from 
elsewhere.       "  All    roads    lead    to     Peking." 

63 


America  in  the  East 

The  people  of  southern  China  are  less 
attractive  in  physique  than  their  northern 
fellow-countrymen,  but  are  not  much  more 
progressive.  The  Chinese  seen  in  America 
come  wholly  from  this  quarter,  and,  indeed, 
almost  exclusively  from  certain  districts  around 
Canton,  in  area  not  larger  than  Vermont. 
In  central  China,  where  natural  resources  are 
more  abundant  and  communications  more 
easy,  we  find  also  more  men  of  ability,  with 
open-mindedness,  and  with  some  conception 
of  what  national  progress  means. 


64 


CHAPTER  X 

CAUSES  OF  CHINESE  DECAY 

WHY  has  a  people  so  favored  by  nature 
remained  stationary,  like  a  stone  in 
a  moist  place,  gathering  the  moss  of  ages  ? 
China  is  like  a  great  boneless  giant,  a  masto- 
don without  nerves.  Low  is  the  type  of  life 
where  the  sensory  and  motor  nerves  respond 
so  languidly  to  danger  at  the  extremities. 
Why  has  the  central  Flowery  Land  remained 
so  many  centuries  apparently  in  a  state  of 
arrested  development?  The  vagueness  of 
national  feeling,  the  general  absence  of  patri- 
otism, the  lack  of  mental  initiative,  the  gen- 
eral sluggishness  of  the  national  mind,  spring, 
we  think,  from  Chinese  vagueness  of  thought 
in  regard  to  this  universe  and  the  Maker  of 
It.  Where  pantheism  reigns,  there  can  be 
little  worthy  of  the  name  of  history,  no  defi- 
nite self-consciousness,  little  sense  of  national 
unity. 

5  65 


America  in  the  East 

The  facts  are  that  the  Chinese  have  been 
isolated  from  the  world  by  natural  barriers. 
On  three  sides,  north,  west,  and  south,  are 
great  deserts  which  in  early  days  could  not 
be  traversed,  or  mountain  ranges  that  were 
almost  unsurmountable,  while  on  the  eastern 
front  lies  the  great  ocean,  once  a  dead  wall  of 
inclusion.  Yet,  as  if  nature  had  reared  no 
sufficient  barriers,  the  Chinese  built  more  and 
greater.  The  first  is  a  brick  frontier  which 
in  its  dimensions  has  a  length  like  that  from 
Sandy  Hook  to  Kansas.  Over  two  thousand 
years  old,  the  Great  Wall  winds  like  a  colos- 
sal snake  over  mountains  and  valleys.  Yet 
this  monument  of  separation  is  only  a  symbol 
of  more  efficient  barriers  to  intercourse  which 
have  been  reared  in  the  mind.  In  the  first 
place,  the  women,  half  of  Chinese  humanity, 
are  bound  at  both  extremities,  in  head  and 
feet.  The  Sons  of  Han  never  encouraged 
the  education  of  the  mothers  of  their  children, 
and  they  have  literally  cramped  their  feet, 
dooming  millions  of  little  girls  through  many 
generations  to  have  their  toes  crushed  and 
their  extremities,  so  beautiful  as  God  made 
them,  compressed  into  shapeless  hoofs.  In 
66 


Causes  of  Chinese  Decay 

the    struggle    for   life,   in   famine   or  disease, 
the  daughter  is  foredoomed  to  death. 

They  have  both  starved  and  fettered  the 
mind,  and  prevented  its  growth.  Confucius, 
whose  boast  was  that  he  invented  nothing, 
followed  his  ancestors  in  gazing  with  rever- 
ence upon  the  past,  but  with  fear  and  dread 
upon  the  future.  He  went  even  further  in 
making  a  nation  of  agnostics.  The  forefathers 
at  the  altars  of  heaven  and  earth  worshipped 
God.  Confucius  laid  down  the  precept, 
"  Honor  the  gods,  but  keep  them  far  from 
you."  He  taught  morality  as  etiquette  only, 
degraded  religion  to  a  merely  ethical  system, 
and  thus  cut  the  taproot  of  all  moral  growth, 
by  preventing  aspiration.  The  element  of 
religious  progress  being  eliminated,  the  mind 
was  fettered  like  their  own  botanical  curi- 
osities. These,  stinted  of  air,  moisture,  soil, 
and  with  roots  cut,  attain  that  limited  growth 
which  is  deemed  so  elegant.  The  great  mass 
of  Chinese  humanity,  without  vision  or  in- 
quiry, making  no  criticism  of  the  past  or 
showing  any  desire  to  change,  indeed  looking 
upon  innovation  as  crime,  have  remained  at  a 
dead  level.     A  missionary  once  informed  me 

67 


America  in  the  East 

that,  in  sixteen  years  of  teaching  many  docile 
and  estimable  pupils,  he  could  recall  no  in- 
stance of  any  one  of  them  coming  to  ask  him 
what  this  or  that  Scripture  meaht,  or  any 
instance  of  critical  inquiry. 

Nevertheless,  we  must  remember  that 
China  has  had  political  development  and 
variety.  There  has  been  evolution  from  pa- 
triarchal to  regal  government,  then  feudalism, 
and  finally  centralization,  with  frequently 
varying  balances  of  power  between  sovereign 
and  people,  between  imperialism  and  democ- 
racy. Indeed,  China,  locally,  is  the  freest 
country  in  Asia.  The  fact  that  Taoism  and 
Buddhism  have  taken  such  root  and  flour- 
ished so  widely,  is  proof  that  mental  initiative 
is  not  wholly  lost,  and  that  the  Chinese  have 
capacity  to  change,  and  even  to  adopt  Chris- 
tianity. 

Furthermore,  some  things  on  which  Occi- 
dental civilization  sets  great  store,  and  which 
seem  almost  necessary  to  its  being,  are 
of  distinctly  Oriental  origin,  and  for  many 
centuries  the  Chinese  had  them  before  they 
were  known  elsewhere.  These  were  tea,  silk, 
paper,  jade,  porcelain,  clocks,  gunpowder, 
68 


Causes  of  Chinese  Decay 

and  much  of  the  knowledge  which,  through 
alchemy,  has  developed  into  chemistry.  It 
is  probable  that  the  Egyptians,  like  the 
Greeks  and  Romans,  and  it  is  certain  that 
the  mediaeval  Arabs,  borrowed  much  from 
China.  It  is  no  longer  a  matter  of  opinion, 
but  of  fact,  that  printing,  by  means  of  mov- 
able types,  as  well  as  by  blocks  and  other 
stereotyped  forms,  was  known  in  Korea  cen- 
turies before  it  was  practised  in  Europe,  the 
probabilities  being  that  the  art  was  brought 
into  Europe  by  the  Mongols.  The  magnetic 
needle  was  for  centuries  used  as  a  guide  for 
land  travellers,  but  in  a.  d.  1122  the  record 
was  made  of  a  Chinese  fleet  from  Ningpo  to 
Korea  being  guided  by  the  magnetic  needle. 
It  is  entirely  true  that  upon  the  basis  of  the 
Chinese  discoveries  and  applications  Western 
men  have  advanced  mightily. 

For  sixteen  centuries  or  more  the  Chinese 
have  had  competitive  literary  examination  for 
appointment  to  the  civil  service,  yet,  after 
ages  of  literary  dalliance  and  ponderous  eru- 
dition, the  average  learned  Chinaman  is  the 
most  ignorant  man  of  letters  known  on  earth. 
The  Chinese,   more   than   any  other  people, 

69 


America  in  the  East 

have  suffered  from  routine,  age-hardened  con- 
ceit, ignorance  which  seems  invulnerable,  and 
an  apparently  hopeless  lack  of  originality. 
Even  the  progress  of  Christian  nations  is,  in 
the  mandarin's  eyes,  degeneration,  degradation. 

It  is  no  wonder,  then,  that  when  the  forlorn 
hope  of  American  teachers  of  the  Gospel 
first  entered  China,  merchants  and  sailors 
asked  them  incredulously  whether  they  could 
move  China.  They  answered  that  they  could 
not,  but  that  God  could. 

What  the  Chinese  need  is  life,  vision.  It 
is  because  their  sages  and  mandarins  say, 
"We  see,"  while  yet  they  are  blind,  that 
they  cannot  even  now  realize  their  danger. 
The  people  have  no  hope,  and  are  liable 
to  be  conquered  by  the  foreigner  and  lose 
their  country.  China  needs  a  new  nervous 
system. 


70 


CHAPTER  XI 

OUR  PIONEER  COUNTRYMEN    IN  CHINA 

IT  was  a  day  of  very  small  things  that  saw 
the  beginnings  of  American  influence  upon 
Ta  Tsing.  Our  flag  was  first  carried  to  China 
by  Major  Gray,  of  the  United  States  First 
Artillery,  who  was  supercargo  of  the  American 
ship  "  Empress,**  which,  loaded  with  ginseng, 
sailed  on  Washington's  birthday,  1784,  for 
Canton.  There  the  Stars  and  Stripes  were 
raised,  and  the  men  from  "  the  Country  of 
the  Flowery  Flag  "  began  to  be  known.  The 
first  American  firms  were  those  of  Milner  & 
Bull,  and  later  of  Talbot,  Olyphant,  &  Co. 

It  was  through  a  New  Yorker,  Mr.  Oly- 
phant, a  member  of  the  Bleecker  Street  Pres- 
byterian Church,  and  by  his  invitation,  that 
the  famous  English  missionary  to  China, 
Robert  Morrison,  the  first  Protestant  mis- 
sionary to  that  country,  was  able  to  reach 
Canton.  His  name,  ever  fragrant  and  magic- 
like,   is    an    honor    to    all    English-speaking 

71 


America  in  the  East 

nations,  and  his  manuscripts  are  to-day  rev- 
erently treasured  under  glass  in  Hong-Kong. 
He  arrived  in  the  year  1807,  and  was  given 
quarters  with  Messrs.  Milner  &  Bull,  of  New 
York.  The  East  India  Company  was  hostile 
to  the  presence  of  a  missionary,  but  it  was 
through  Mr.  Olyphant's  influence  that  the 
London  Missionary  Society  sent  him  out, 
and  so  manifest  were  his  talents  that  in  1 808 
the  Company  employed  him  as  translator. 
With  a  single  teacher,  who  was  in  constant 
terror  of  being  discovered  and  put  to  death, 
he  worked  steadily  for  years  in  a  godown  'or 
storehouse.  This  hero  of  learning  and  con- 
secration, almost  unaided,  translated  the  Bible 
into  the  most  difficult  language  of  the  world. 
In  the  opinion  of  all  learned  men  in  Europe, 
this  had  been  deemed  utterly  beyond  the 
power  of  any  single  person.  Through  his 
exertions,  with  those  of  his  colleagues,  from 
1810  to  1836,  751,763  copies  of  works,  re- 
ligious and  scientific,  consisting  of  800,000,000 
pages,  were  printed  at  Canton  and  other 
ports  in  the  Far  East,  of  which  there  were 
2,075  complete  Chinese  Bibles,  9,970  New 
Testaments,  and  3 1 ,000  separate  portions  of 

72 


Our  Countrymen  in  China 

Scripture.  To  translate  the  Bible  into  Chinese 
meant  the  building  of  a  railway  through  the 
Chinese  intellect. 

Talbot,  Olyphant,  &  Co.  formed  but  one 
of  those  princely  American  "  hongs  "  or  mer- 
chant houses  before  submarine-cable  days,  so 
liberal  in  spirit  and  so  generous  in  patronage 
of  good  to  China.  This  same  firm  invited 
out  and  brought  on  one  of  their  ships  Dr. 
David  Abeel,  from  New  York.  It  was  the 
church  of  which  Mr.  Olyphant  was  a  member 
that  sent  out  the  printing-press  and  type  of 
which  Mr.  S.  Wells  Williams  took  charge. 
The  first  Christian  school  in  China,  estabHshed 
at  Canton  and  named  after  Morrison,  was 
started  in  1838  by  the  Rev.  S.  R.  Brown,  ^ 
graduate  of  Yale  College  and  son  of  the 
author  of  the  well-known  hymn,  "  I  love  to 
steal  awhile  away,  from  every  cumbering  care." 
Dr.  Brown  trained  many  Chinese  young  men, 
including  Yung  Wing,  who  afterwards  was 
influential  in  having  over  a  hundred  Chinese 
young  men  brought  to  the  United  States  for 
education,  besides  being  a  power  in  bringing 
in  the  new  and  better  China  that  is  to  be. 

The  free  education,  both  Christian  and 
73 


America  in  the  East 

secular,  which  Americans  have  given  the 
Chinese,  through  the  boarding  and  day  schools 
for  boys  and  girls,  medical  and  technical 
schools,  through  academies  and  colleges,  forms 
a  brilliant  story.  The  Canton  school  was  con- 
tinued by  Dr.  A.  P.  Happer,  educator  and 
translator,  who  lived  until  1894,  having  com- 
piled and  put  into  the  vernacular  scores  of 
text-books,  his  monument  being  the  Christian 
College  in  Canton. 

To  mention  even  a  few  illustrious  examples 
of  ability,  patient  industry,  and  success  is  to 
do  injustice  to  other  noble  men  and  women 
— unless  this  paper  is  taken  as  only  a  hint  or 
meagre  sketch.  Dr.  W.  A.  P.  Martin,  of  Indi- 
ana, who  came  to  Ning-po  in  1850,  has  spent 
most  of  his  time  as  an  educator.  He  was 
called  by  the  Government  in  1869  to  start 
and  conduct  the  Tung-wen,  a  college  organ- 
ized in  Peking  to  train  young  men  for  the 
public  service,  especially  as  agents  of  inter- 
national intercourse.  Under  nine  foreign 
professors  and  four  native  teachers,  the  one 
hundred  and  twenty  students  are  of  two  sorts, 
those  who  begin  with  languages  and  those 
who  begin  with  the  sciences.  Dr.  Martin's 
74 


Our  Countrymen  in  China 

works,  potent  for  the  making  of  a  new  China 
and  done  into  Chinese,  are  now  circulating 
wherever  Chinese  is  read.  His  best  piece 
of  translation  —  Wheaton's  "  International 
Law "  —  has  exercised  a  mighty  influence 
upon  the  two  empires  whose  rulers  are  Sons 
of  Heaven,  dwelling  in  Peking  and  Tokio. 
Like  Verbeck,  of  Japan,  this  American  has 
been  an  instructor  of  statesmen.  In  the  pro- 
gramme of  reforms  set  forth  by  the  Emperor 
recently,  which  I  believe  will  yet  be  carried 
out.  Dr.  Martin  has  been  authorized  to  or- 
ganize a  Chinese  University,  which  is  likely 
to  change  the  key  of  national  education  and 
intellect. 

Not  less  brilliant  as  a  story,  nor  less 
wonderful  for  good,  is  the  modern  medical 
history  of  China,  as  directed  by  American 
physicians.  Dr.  Peter  Parker,  a  Yale  graduate 
and  Massachusetts  man,  while  on  his  way  to 
China  in  1834  to  establish  a  hospital,  was 
influential  in  having  organized  the  Edinburgh 
Medical  Missionary  Society,  which  has  done 
such  good  to  the  souls  and  bodies  of  men  in 
China  and  Japan.  Besides  relieving  thou- 
sands of  suflferers,  through  medicine  and  sur- 

75 


America  in  the  East 

gery,  during  many  years  of  toil,  and  in  training 
hundreds  of  Chinese  students  to  be  physicians. 
Dr.  Parker  was  but  one  pioneer  of  a  great 
host  from  America  and  Europe.  These  have 
established,  and  given  years  of  drudgery  in, 
the  sixty-one  hospitals  and  forty-three  dis- 
pensaries v/hich  were  in  China  in  1890,  and 
are  now  more  numerous,  and  in  which  nearly 
four  hundred  thousand  patients  are  treated 
annually. 

As  early  as  February  6,  1 8 1 2,  five  mission- 
aries were  ordained  at  Salem,  Massachusetts,  to 
teach  and  preach  in  eastern  Asia.  From  the 
very  first,  American  missionaries  have  been 
gifted  with  the  best  of  all  gifts,  that  of  sancti- 
fied common  sense.  Instead  of  being  freaks 
and  cranks,  they  have  proved  themselves 
men  of  ability  and  clear  vision.  Finding  that 
missionary  work  does  not  always  consist  in 
doing  exactly  what  one  came  expecting  to  do, 
they  immediately  put  hand  and  mind  to  what 
was  set  before  them.  Years  before  Christ- 
ianity was  tolerated  by  treaty,  our.  missionaries 
had  settled  in  the  Straits  Settlements  and 
learned  the  Chinese  language,  so  that,  when 
able  to  enter  in,  they  were  already  equipped 

76 


Our  Countrymen  in  China 

for  the  work,  carrying  also  Dr.  Robert  Mor- 
rison's translation  of  the  Bible  into  Chinese. 
When,  in  1842,  the  nve  ports  were  opened, 
they  were  reinforced  from  home,  made  better 
versions  of  the  Bible,  established  schools, 
opened  dispensaries,  and  printed  books.  Mr. 
David  Abeel,  of  the  Reformed  Church, 
founded,  while  on  a  visit  to  England,  the 
Society  for  Promoting  the  Female  Education 
of  the  East.  Besides  sending  scores  of  wo- 
men to  teach  their  sisters  of  India  and  China, 
this  Society  became  the  prolific  parent  of 
the  numerous  Women's  Missionary  Socie- 
ties, both  denominational  and  union,  which 
have  done  so  much  good  all  over  the  world. 
Another  pioneer  was  Lieutenant  M.  S.  Cul- 
bertson,  U.  S.  A.,  classmate  at  West  Point 
with  Sherman,  Beauregard,  and  Halleck,  who 
resigned  his  commission  to  serve  the  Great 
Captain  in  China,  and  to  help  put  the  Bible 
into  the  tongue  of  millions. 

The  Bleecker  Street  Presbyterian  Church, 
in  New  York  City,  sent  to  the  newly  estab- 
lished mission  at  Canton  a  printing-press 
to  print  books  to  aid  in  spreading  the  Gospel. 
William    Williams,  the  father,  wrote    to    his 

77 


America  in  the  East 

son,  S.  Wells  Williams,  who  had  fixed  his 
mind  upon  the  career  of  a  botanist,  to  go  out 
and  take  charge  of  this  press.  The  botanist 
became  a  printer.  In  China,  with  quick  eye 
and  wonderful  inventive  power,  he  studied 
the  Chinese  system  of  writing  to  find  which 
of  the  80,000  or  more  characters  could  be 
best  used  for  printing.  From  that  small 
beginning,  and  through  the  work  of  Mr. 
Gamble  at  Shanghai,  have  developed  giant 
enterprises  for  the  production  and  distribution 
of  printed  matter.  Forty  missionary  societies 
are  now  at  work  in  China,  and  all  make 
more  or  less  use  of  tract,  book,  and  leaflet 
among  a  people  who  almost  worship  letters. 
The  American  Board  press  years  ago  had 
issued  over  30,000,000  pages.  The  Metho- 
dist press  at  Fu-chau  sends  out  over  a  mil- 
lion pages  annually.  The  Presbyterian  press 
of  Shanghai,  with  its  type-foundry,  bindery, 
book  depository,  does  printing  in  eight  lan- 
guages. In  the  year  1889,  6,178,806  pages 
were  sent  forth.  Here  the  great  manuscript 
dictionaries,  grammars,  original  works  and 
translations  into  the  Chinese  dialects,  and  into 
Japanese,  Korean,  Manchiu,  and  Malay,  which 
78 


Our  Countrymen  in  China 

are  such  a  credit  to  American  scholarship, 
have  been  condensed  into  light  and  portable 
volumes.  Billions  of  pages  of  Gospel  truth, 
of  scientific  information,  and  of  popular  knowl- 
edge on  most  every  conceivable  department 
of  human  progress  have  thus  been  scattered 
broadcast  all  over  China. 
"  Dr.  Elijah  Coleman  Bridgman,  the  first 
American  missionary  sent  directly  from  the 
United  States  to  China,  began  in  May,  1832, 
to  publish  a  magazine,  the  "  Chinese  Reposi- 
tory," relating  to  the  people  and  countries  of 
the  Far  East,  in  order  that  the  whole  English- 
speaking  world  as  well  as  educated  Euro- 
peans everywhere  might  learn  to  know  more 
about  yellow  and  brown  humanity.  He  was 
able  to  do  this  because,  besides  the  Chinese 
type  belonging  to  the  East  Indian  Company, 
he  had  the  font  of  type  brought  out  from  New 
York.  Mr.  S.  Wells  Williams,  the  educated 
printer  in  charge,  became  also  a  contributor, 
helping  with  hand  and  head  to  issue  that 
world-renowned  periodical,  which  for  twenty 
years  informed  the  world,  as  it  had  never 
been  informed  before,  about  the  oldest  of 
empires.      Besides  a  library  of  solid  volumes, 

79 


America  in  the  East 

which  have  helped  to  bridge  the  gulf  between 
alien  and  native.  Dr.  Williams  wrote  "  The 
Middle  Kingdom,"  the  best  book  on  China, 
and  his  Tonic  and  Syllabic  Dictionaries. 
The  publication  of  each  of  the  three  was  a 
literary  event.  Thus  were  opened  those 
mighty  quarries  in  which  book-makers,  tour- 
ists, writers  on  China,  and  speakers  of  the 
language  have  so  industriously  delved,  so  that 
out  of  their  bowels  have  come  the  materials 
for  a  mighty  superstructure  of  literature. 
After  the  "  Repository  "  ceased,  the  "  Chinese 
Recorder  "  was  founded  by  Dr.  L.  N.  Wheeler, 
and  is  still  published.  Neither  Williams  nor 
Martin  has  ever  trumpeted  forth  the  fact  of 
imperial  favor,  audiences  with  the  Emperor, 
or  the  possession  of  mandarin's  buttons.  In 
1848  John  V.  N.  Talmage  (brother  of  the 
well-known  living  preacher  In  Washington) 
reached  Amoy  (whence  came  the  tea  to 
Boston  in  1773),  where  the  first  Church  for 
native  Christians  using  an  open  Bible  was 
erected  in  China.  There  were  two  believers 
in  the  Amoy  region  when  Talmage  arrived. 
There  are  now  scores  of  churches.  The 
story  of  this  missionary  is  typical  of  others. 
80 


Our  Countrymen  in  China 

The  forty  or  fifty  thousand  enrolled  Protest- 
ant church  members  now  in  China  imply  a 
Christian  community  of  over  150,000,  and 
with  the  Catholics  of  over  a  quarter  of  a 
million.  Of  missionary  progress  an  expert 
critic  on  the  ground  wrote  in  1888  : 

"  If  Christian  missions  [in  China]  advance 
in  the  next  thirty-five  years  in  the  same  ratio 
as  in  the  past  thirty-five  years,  there  will  be, 
at  the  end  of  that  time,  twenty-six  millions  of 
communicants  and  a  Christian  community 
of  one  hundred  million  people  "  —  one-fourth 
of  the  Chinese  nation. 


81 


CHAPTER   XII 

AMERICAN    LEAVEN    IN    THE    CHINESE    MASS 

THE  printed  page  has  been  a  great 
leavening  force,  permeating  and  lifting 
up  the  Chinese  mass.  To-day,  besides  the 
foreign  newspapers  at  the  treaty  ports,  mostly 
in  English,  there  are  twelve  or  fifteen  Chris- 
tian journals  printed  in  Chinese,  and  the 
vernacular  daily  press  in  the  cities.  The  first 
newspapers  and  periodicals  were  missionary 
organs.  Then  came  secular  papers,  all  started 
with  foreign  capital,  but  soon  purchased  by 
natives  and  coming  under  their  control. 
Typesetters,  printers,  and  editors  are  Chi- 
nese. There  are  newspapers  for  educated 
families,  cheap  sensational  weeklies,  advertis- 
ing sheets,  and  even  comic  papers.  Shanghai 
has  already  five  Chinese  newspapers. 

The  dense  ignorance  of  the  masses  has  also 
been  pierced  by  the  societies  like  that  for  the 
Diffusion  of  Christian  and  General  Knowl- 
edge, which  has  had  such  a  surprising  expan- 

82 


American  Leaven 

sion  since  the  Chino-Japanese  war.  In  one 
year,  from  November  i,  1896,  a  total  of  199,- 
200  copies  of  books,  containing  12,167,900 
leaves  or  double  pages,  were  issued.  Dr. 
Young  J.  Allen,  an  American  missionary,  the 
chief  author  and  translator,  has  devoted  his 
life  to  this  work,  which  seemed  at  first  like 
casting  good  bread  upon  ungrateful  waters. 
But  he  has  lived  to  see  what  he  cast  forth 
return  after  many  days.  The  chief  centres 
of  distribution  are  in  the  examination  halls, 
where  students  assemble  (in  Nanking  even  to 
the  number  of  twenty-four  thousand,  and  now 
under  the  electric  light).  It  is  from  among 
such  Chinese  students,  enlightened  by  Occi- 
dental knowledge,  translations,  and  by  truth 
supplied  by  foreigners,  that  reformers  like 
Kang  (now  the  exile  in  Tokio),  who  brought 
the  new  ideas  even  to  the  Emperor,  have 
come. 

It  is  impossible  to  tell  in  detail  the  story  of 
Christian  missions,  or  the  wonderful  results 
accomplished.  To  judge  of  these  latter  by 
statistics  of  converts  is  simply  absurd.  As 
some  of  the  grandest  triumphs  in  electricity 
are  those  of  induction,  so  the  Protestant  mis- 

83 


America  in  the  East 

sionaries  of  China  have,  besides  their  churches, 
preaching  stations,  hospitals,  dispensaries, 
schools,  colleges,  and  printing-presses,  given 
the  Chinese  object-lessons  and  stimulated 
them  to  thought,  and,  we  might  almost  say, 
created  for  them  a  public  opinion.  Of  course 
these  men  who  turn  the  Chinese  world  upside 
down  are  not  liked,  for  innovation  in  the  eyes 
of  the  normal  Confucian  is  sin.  Why  should 
the  mandarins  or  the  orthodox,  whose  interests 
are  all  in  keeping  things  as  they  are,  whose 
only  reverence  is  for  what  is  past,  who  wish 
to  keep  China  governed  from  the  graveyard, 
approve  or  say  anything  in  favor  of  Christian 
missionaries  ? 

Furthermore,  we  must  never  forget  the 
great  contrast  of  ideals  and  purposes  of  Pro- 
testant and  Catholic  missionaries.  The  Roman 
Catholic,  noble,  self-denying,  self-effacing,  will- 
ing martyr  as  he  often  is,  forms  a  commun- 
ity, holds  his  converts  to  the  Church,  but 
does  not  in  any  very  appreciable  way  touch 
the  art,  literature,  traditions,  or  ideals  of  the 
people.  If  his  pupils  are  good  Catholics, 
they  may  still  plod  on  in  their  old  ruts.  But 
the   Protestant  missionary   comes    to    reform 

84 


\ 


American  Leaven 

society.  He  brings  leaven,  he  makes  up- 
heaval, he  influences  art,  literature,  tradition, 
ideals.  He  gives  a  new  view  and  compels 
change,  and  change  for  the  better. 

Consequently,  there  is  to-day  a  "young 
China."  There  are  Chinese  who  no  longer 
consider  that  the  graveyard  ought  to  rule,  or 
that  the  thoughts  of  dead  men  may  not  be 
challenged.  It  is  the  pupils  of  the  mission- 
aries who,  directly  or  indirectly,  have  had  the 
courage  to  pierce  the  official  hedge  and  bring 
even  to  the  Emperor  the  truth.  It  is  they  who 
have  told  the  Son  of  Heaven  that  unless  he 
and  his  people  awake  to  the  truth  of  the 
Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of 
man,  the  nation  is  doomed,  and  that  the  very 
attempt  to  preserve  the  institutions  which 
have  caused  China's  retrogression  and  decay 
will  hasten  her  downfall. 

In  diplomacy,  the  American  leaven  has  been 
powerful  in  the  Chinese  mass.  The  first 
Minister,  the  Hon.  Caleb  Cushing,  a  man  of 
ability,  tact,  and  power,  arrived  in  the  frigate 
"Brandywine."  With  our  missionaries  as  sec- 
retaries and  interpreters,  he  concluded  the 
treaty  of  Wanghia,  July  3,  1844,  which  was 

85 


America  in  the  East 

so  clear  and  detailed  that  until  i860  it  was 
the  leading  authority  in  settling  disputes  be- 
tween the  Chinese  Government  and  foreigners. 
William  B.  Reed  came  to  China  in  the  "  Min- 
nesota," but  refused  to  make  the  ko-tow,  or 
nine  protestations,  and  left  the  country.  The 
first  instance  in  which  the  name  and  title  of 
a  foreign  functionary  were  respectfully  men- 
tioned was  when  the  American  Minister 
John  E.  Ward  was  reported,  in  the  Peking 
"Gazette,"  in  July,  1869,  to  have  come  to  the 
imperial  capital.  He,  too,  refused  to  ko-tow; 
but  the  result  of  the  diplomacy  of  1 858,  which 
dragged  the  bat-like  mandarins  out  of  their 
stupid  ignorance  and  childish  desires  for  isola- 
tion, was  the  toleration  of  Christianity,  diplo- 
matic residence  in  Peking,  and  freedom  to 
travel  through  the  country.  Through  these 
three  avenues  of  welfare  and  progress,  hereto- 
fore closed,  as  S.  Wells  Williams  says,  China 
has  already  "  made  more  real  advances  than 
ever  before  in  her  history." 

Peking  once  accessible,  our  country  has  had 
a  line  of  able  representatives,  led  by  Anson 
Burllngame.  In  1868  he  came  to  America 
and  Europe  with  the  Chinese  Embassy.     De- 


American  Leaven 

spite  the  tart  criticisms  of  men  too  eager  to 
make  money,  Burlingame  did  good,  and 
China's  first  attempt  to  show  friendliness  was 
a  sincere  one.  Then  American  influence  in 
China  was  at  the  flood-tide,  for  a  new  order 
of  things  was  beginning  and  friendly  advice 
was  welcomed.  These  were  the  days  when 
we  were  begging  the  Chinese  to  come  over 
and  help  us  in  developing  our  country.  We 
had  not  yet  begun  to  violate  our  own  treaties, 
eat  our  own  words,  and  kick  out  the  guests 
we  had  once  invited.  Not  having  any  definite 
foreign  policy.  Republican  or  Democratic, 
inspired  now  by  scholars  and  again  by  the 
sand-lot  orators,  the  outrageous  treaty  of 
1894,  the  eternal 'disgrace  of  the  American 
Nation,  was  negotiated,  and  American  pres- 
tige fell.  Nevertheless,  it  rose  again  under 
James  Ross  Brown,  the  versatile  engineer; 
Mr.  Low,  the  all-round  high-average  Gov- 
ernor of  California ;  the  writer  and  scholar 
Avery,  the  practical  and  thoroughly  trained 
and  experienced  Seward  (nephew  of  America's 
great  expansionist),  the  university  president 
Angell,  the  well-informed  journalist  John 
Russell  Young,  and  last,  though  farthest 
87 


America  in  the  East 

from  the  leasts  Denby,  who,  to  the  honor  of 
our  Government,  actually  served  three  terms. 
When  the  war-storm  of  1894  broke  out,  he 
had  the  profound  confidence  both  of  China 
ajid  Japan. 

Some  day  we  shall  see  the  folly  of  sending 
out  to  Oriental  nations  raw  diplomatists  igno- 
rant of  the  language  and  people  among  whom 
thej  live.  Excellent,  however,  as  has  been 
the  line  of  diplomatists  of  the  United  States 
in  Peking,  how,  with  such  secretaries,  scholars, 
men  of  affairs,  masters  of  the  Chinese  lan- 
guage, and  missionaries  as  S.  Wells  Williams, 
W.  A.  P.  Martin,  and  Chester  Holcombe  in 
Peking,  could  it  have  been  hard  for  even  an 
average  man  to  be  anything  else  than  a  pretty 
good  envoy  ?  The  fruitful  visit  of  General 
Grant  —  "the  typical  American  citizen"  — 
and  the  labors  of  the  Hon.  John  W.  Foster 
in  China  in  1895,  though  unofficial,  belong  to 
this  fair  page  of  American  influence  in  the 
Far  East. 

It  was  an  American,  General  Ward,  who 
first  revealed  to  the  world  the  military  possi- 
bilities of  the  Chinese  people.  It  had  come 
to  be  almost  a  settled  maxim  with  Europeans, 
88 


American  Leaven 

down  to  the  year  i860,  that  the  Chinese  had 
no  military  capacity  whatever,  that  they  were 
not  only  timid  and  cowardly,  but  could  not 
be  organized  for  war.  The  fact  that  a  little 
army  of  Anglo-French  allies  had  penetrated 
to  the  capital  and  destroyed  the  Imperial 
summer  palace  seemed  to  demonstrate  that 
neither  Tartar  nor  Chinaman  could  be  called 
a  soldier,  in  the  Western  sense  of  the  word. 
Then  it  was  that  General  Frederick  G.  Ward, 
of  Salem,  Massachusetts,  in  the  time  of  the 
great  Tai-ping  rebellion,  drilled  a  company  of 
ordinary  natives  until  they  became  invincible 
heroes.  After  Ward's  death,  "  Chinese " 
Gordon,  whose  murder  at  Khartoum  has 
just  been  avenged  by  Kitchener,  commanded 
this  Ever-Conquering  Legion  and  enlarged 
it,  winning  his  great  fame,  putting  down  the 
rebellion  that  had  caused  the  death  of  mill- 
ions of  Chinamen,  with  incredible  devastation 
of  land  and  cities.  Thus  building  where  an 
American  had  laid  the  foundation,  Li  Hung 
Chang  was  enabled,  with  German  aid,  to  put 
into  the  field  the  only  Chinese  soldiery  which, 
could  stand  for  an  hour  in  presence  of  the 
Japanese    army   of  1874.     When    this    one 

8^ 


America  in  the  East 

army  corps  was  destroyed,  China  had  to 
make  peace,  though  the  so-called  Chino- 
Japanese  war  of  1894-95  was  in  no  sense 
a  war  between  two  countries,  but  only  be- 
tween Japan  and  three  or  four  Chinese 
provinces. 

In  a  word,  it  may  be  within  bounds  to  say 
that  the  American  diplomatists,  missionaries, 
teachers,  physicians,  engineers,  and  men  of 
science  have  trained  up  the  majority  of  the 
men  of  "  New  China,"  —  that  is,  the  only 
population  which  can  be  permanently  relied 
on  for  the  building  of  a  new  and  regenerate 
State. 

"  Fifty  years  of  Europe "  may  indeed  be 
better  than  a  "  cycle  of  Cathay."  Still,  it 
must  be  remembered  that  a  Chinese  cycle 
is  exactly  sixty  years  long,  and  the  year, 
1899,  is  the  36th  of  the  76th  cycle,  since 
the  first  began  2637  b.  c.  Although  Mr. 
Tennyson  may  have  meant  some  indefinite 
period,  yet  to  the  student  of  China  the  words 
have  less  force  than  formerly,  for  old  China 
is  becoming  new,  and  "  through  the  shadow 
of  the  globe  '*  is  ever  sweeping  "  into  a 
younger  day."  Years  ago  Dr.  S.  Wells 
90 


American  Leaven 

Williams  wrote  his  faith  and  prophecy,  or, 
at  least,  hope,  that  the  regeneration  of  China 
would  be  "accomplished  like  the  operation 
of  leaven  .  in  meal,  without  shivering  the 
vessel." 


9« 


CHAPTER  XIII 

.       THE    OLD   JAPAN    OF    HERMIT    DAYS 

IT  is  but  half  "  a  cycle  of  Cathay,"  or 
exactly  thirty  years,  since  Mutsuhito, 
the  one  hundred  and  twenty-third  Mikado 
of  Japan,  began  his  reign  and  the  era  of 
Meiji  or  enlightened  civilization.  Within 
that  time  the  hermit  nation  has  taken  a 
place  among  the  world-powers. 

Once  a  sealed  country,  like  the  closed  cave 
of  Arabian  story,  the  American  Perry  found 
the  talismanic  "  Open  Sesame."  Our  AH 
Baba  made  the  portals  unfold.  Now  the 
whole  world  is  surprised  at  the  wonders 
revealed. 

No  one  can  accuse  the  latest  delineators 
of  Japan  of  a  lack  of  appreciation.  On  the 
contrary,  in  their  lush  rhetoric  and  rank  flat- 
tery, which  shows  ominous  signs  of  self- 
deception,  or  of  ultra-subjectiveness,  rather 
than  perception  of  truth  or  adherence  to 
facts,  there  is  danger  of  reaction.     Some  day 


The  Old  Japan  of  Hermit  Days 

the  Japanese  may  be  as  much  underrated 
and  scouted  as  they  are  now  overpraised  by 
some.  It  is  very  certain  that,  whether  in- 
tending it  or  not,  the  average  newspaper 
correspondent  and  hasty  tourist,  wishing  to 
please  both  the  Japanese  themselves  (who 
love  "sugar  and  superlatives")  and  the 
Occidental  admirers  of  "  Japonism,"  give 
what,  when  analyzed,  are  caricatures  of  truth. 
They  ignore  both  the  men  and  the  forces 
that  have  made  the  new  Japan.  Some  of 
these  literary  "  impressionists "  seem  to  be 
so  Japanese-mad  in  their  rhapsodies  as  to 
suggest  Titania  before  Bottom.  In  the 
name  of  all  our  inheritance,  let  us  not  cast 
away  perspective  or  take  a  Japanese  poster 
as  the  gauge  and  measure  of  reality. 

To  understand  the  present,  we  must  look 
at  the  past.     Let  us  have  a  little  history. 

Official  native  chronology  is  a  very  recent 
product,  manufactured  in  Tokio  less  than 
thirty  years  ago,  and  much  more  fashionable 
than  justifiable.  It  is  still  dangerous  in  Japan 
to  write  in  criticism  of  the  origin  of  the 
Mikado's  house.  Full-grown  natives  who 
profess  to  be  educated,  gravely  write  that 
93 


America  in  the  East 

"  the  first  emperor  ascended  the  throne  b.  c. 
660."  Every  scholar  knows  that  the  first 
thousand  years  or  so  of  so-called  Japanese 
"  history  *'  is  worthless.  Not  until  about 
the  fiDurth  century  does  anything  clear  and 
firm  emerge.  The  natives  acknowledge  that 
no  writings  or  almanacs  were  in  existence 
before  the  sixth  century.  Indeed,  the  more 
*'  official "  a  historical  publication  about  the 
ancient  ages  is,  the  lower  its  value. 

Briefly  sketching  the  national  story,  we 
see  warring  tribes  and  a  population  made 
up  of  Aino,  Nigrito,  Malay,  Tartar,  Korean, 
Chinese,  and  various  continental  elements 
struggling  together  before  the  dawn  of  written 
annals,  in  the  eighth  century.  Out  of  these 
what  is  now  the  imperial  house  became  para- 
mount. The  ancient  islanders  had  the  rudi- 
ments of  a  religion,  called  Shinto,  or  the 
God-way,  which  no  scholar,  native  or  foreign, 
has  yet  demonstrated  to  be  of  indigenous 
origin.  Buddhism,  from  Tibet  and  China 
through  Korea,  entered  a.  d.  552,  has  been 
the  fertile  mother  of  civilization  and  the 
perennial  fountain  of  art,  writing,  literature, 
law,    chronology,   the    popular    religion,   and 

94 


The  Old  Japan  of  Hermit  Days 

manifold  elements  of  culture.  After  the 
first  rude*  feudalism,  codes  of  law  and  the 
centralizing  system  of  boards  in  the  capital 
and  governors  in  the  provinces  were  borrowed 
from  China.  Then,  through  the  rise  of  the 
military  classes,  came  more  elaborate  feudal- 
ism and  duarchy,  —  the  Throne  and  the 
Camp  —  the  Mikado  in  Kioto  the  source 
of  honor,  the  Shogun  or  general  with  the 
sword  and  treasury  in  the  east  at  Kamakura 
or  Yedo. 

For  about  thirty-five  years  (1570  to  1605) 
three  great  men,  Nogfunaga,  Hideyoshi,  and 
lyeyasu  appeared,  and  the  Mikado  governed 
through  a  military  regent.  During  this 
period  also  came  European  traders  and  Port- 
uguese and  Spanish  missionaries.  For  a  while 
the  hermit  nation  was  in  contact  with 
Europe,  and  a  second  great  wave  of  influences 
from  the  West  rolled  in  over  the  country. 
But,  whether  wholly  because  the  mixture  of 
political  ambitions  with  the  foreign  religion 
was  obnoxious,  or,  as  is  more  probable,  be- 
cause of  insular  feebleness  and  a  political 
system  which  feared  competition  with  and 
dangers  from  aliens,  lyeyasu  and  his  states- 

95 


America  in  the  East 

men  took  alarm.  The  foreigners  and  their 
belongings  were  purged  out  by  banishment, 
bloodshed,  and  cruelties  unspeakable.  Once 
more  resuming  the  role  of  a  hermit  nation, 
Japan  gradually  elaborated  a  colossal  system 
of  violent  exclusion  and  hermetical  inclu- 
sion. One  little  loophole  was  kept  open  at 
Nagasaki. 

For  two  centuries  or  more,  almost  un- 
noticed and  scarcely  suspected,  a  constant 
infusion  of  leaven  was  poured  by  the  Dutch- 
men through  this  vent-hole.  Japan,  in  spite 
of  those  who  think  only  of  an  absolutely 
sealed  cave,  a  mummy  chamber,  or  a  Thorn- 
rose  Castle,  was  in  reality,  not  phenomenally 
nor  in  quantity,  but  invisibly  and  with  tre- 
mendous potency,  kept,  as  to  her  inquisitive 
scholars,  in  living  contact  with  Europe. 
The  majority  of  her  educated  men,  however, 
remained  steeped  in  the  agnosticism  of  China 
and  weltered  in  the  ooze  of  pantheism,  be- 
coming the  most  conceited,  proud,  and 
learnedly  ignorant  of  all   men. 

It  is  the  Japan  of  Tokugawa  days  (1604- 
1868)  with  which  our  fathers  and  ourselves 
have  been  acquainted.  Who  were  the  Japan- 
96 


The  Old  Japan  of  Hermit  Days 

ese  of  this  time,  and  what  was  their  condi- 
tion ?  It  is  quite  certain  that  it  was  only 
during  this  period  that  art,  literature,  and 
the  bloom  of  the  spirit  in  civilization  became 
general  in  the  islands.  In  the  earlier  cen- 
turies only  the  soldier  class  (the  Samurai) 
and  the  court  people  enjoyed  comforts  or 
culture,  while  wealth  was  never  great 
Neither  merchants,  nor  indeed  any  of  the 
lower  classes  —  that  is,  nine-tenths  of  the 
people  —  had  any  special  rights  which  sword- 
wearers  were  bound  fully  to  respect.  The 
Japanese  are  a  very  polished  people,  but  ages 
of  force  and  the  sword  have  been  the  teachers 
of  politeness. 

Yet,  even  during  this  modern  time,  popu- 
lation having  outgrown  the  capacity  of  the 
soil  to  furnish  food,  and  the  science  of  agri- 
culture and  the  arts  of  providing  sustenance 
having  come  to  the  fullest  possible  develop- 
ment then  known,  the  whole  nation  had  to 
enter  upon  a  course  of  pinching  economy. 
The  realities  are  set  forth  finely  and  with 
sympathy  in  Mr.  Arthur  Knapp's  "  Feudal 
and  Modern  Japan."  Some  of  the  ways 
and  methods  of  this  "  Crusoe  of  nations  "  in 
7  97 


America  in  the  East 

"cheese-paring"  (though  the  Japanese  never 
use  cheese),  as  revealed  in  the  local  histories, 
seem  as  comical  as  they  are  pathetic.  PopU' 
lation  stood  stationary  for  over  a  century. 
Infanticide  was  very  common.  No  de- 
formed child  had  a  chance  to  live.  Often 
the  girl  babies  fared  as  in  China.  Famines 
were  more  than  occasional,  often  devastating 
considerable  regions.  Diseases  that  can  be 
truly  called  immoral  were  rampant.  It  would 
be  difficult  to  find  many  families  that  were 
absolutely  free  from  the  syphilitic  taint. 
Rarely,  if  ever,  could  one  look  into  an  audi- 
ence of  Japanese  hearers,  even  twenty-five 
years  ago,  without  finding  large  numbers 
pockmarked.  Attendance  upon  the  morning 
hour  at  the  medical  missionary's  dispensary 
revealed  ghastly  pictures  of  disease  such  as 
few  civilized  countries  could  ever  show. 

In  the  Tokugawa  prefects  or  divisions  the 
people  were  fairly  well  off,  but  in  the  others 
the  beggars  were  numerous  and  hideously 
diseased,  and  the  lepers  clamorous.  Gam- 
blers abounded.  I  have  myself  hired  for 
my  kagOy  on  a  wintry  day,  porters  who  had 
gambled  away  every  stitch  of  clothing.  I  had 
98 


The  Old  Japan  of  Hermit  Days 

to  buy  rice  and  watch  them  while  they  ate  it, 
lest  they  should  stake  and  lose  it.  There 
was  a  class  of  people,  the  Eta,  numbering, 
with  the  Hifluin  or  not-human,  probably  a 
million  or  more,  who  were  never  reckoned  in 
the  census,  and  were  treated  as  brutes.  In 
each  of  the  great  municipalities,  forming 
almost  a  city  by  themselves,  was  a  large  col- 
ony of  women  reserved  for  immoral  use. 
Intolerance  in  religion,  ruffianism  under  the 
name  of  honor,  torture  in  the  courts,  and 
modes  of  punishment  in  the  prison  quite 
equal  to  the  old  Spanish  Inquisition,  formed 
the  rule.  The  phallic  cult  was  widespread. 
The  most  shockingly  obscene  books,  pictures, 
and  emblems  were  exposed  for  sale  in  the 
shops,  made  into  confectionery  and  crockery, 
carried  in  parades  and  temple  festivals.  The 
decencies  of  life,  as  understood  even  in  China 
and  India,  to  say  nothing  of  Christendom  — 
and  we  have  read  what  philosophers  and 
aesthetically  inclined  gentlemen  have  said  in 
explanation  and  defence  —  were  not  very  well 
understood  in  Japan.  Nor  must  hermits  be 
judged  by  Occidental  standards,  or  even  by 
themselves  of  a.d.  1898.     Indeed,  we  believe 

99 


America  in  the  East 

it  to  be  quite  true  that  the  reason  why  the 
average  woman  took  her  bath  in  the  middle 
of  the  street  was  because  it  would  attract  less 
attention  there  than  where  she  would  have 
less  room. 

It  is  all  very  different  now. 


lOO 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE    COMING    OF    THE    AMERICANS 

EVEN  during  the  last  century  our  seamen 
were  in  the  waters  of  Nippon,  for  dur- 
ing the  extinction  of  the  Dutch  Republic  by 
the  French,  Captain  Stewart  carried  under  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  the  annual  vessel  from 
Batavia  to  Nagasaki  for  trade.  Captain 
Reuben  Coffin,  of  Nantucket,  landed  on  the 
Bonin  Islands  in  1824.  Then  followed 
whalehunters  by  the  thousands. 

An  American  Christian  gentleman  first 
sent  relief  ships  to  the  forbidden  land  in  the 
sea,  to  take  back  Japanese  waifs  to  their 
homes.  In  1837  the  American  firm  of  C. 
W.  King  &  Co.  despatched  the  ship  "  Morri- 
son "  into  Yedo  Bay.  Fired  upon  and  driven 
away,  these  good  Samaritans  encountered  the 
same  policy  of  repulsion  with  fire  and  shot 
at  Kagoshima.  This  Mr.  C.  W.  King,  un- 
discouraged,  wrote  the  first  American  book 
on    Japan.     In   it    he    uttered    a    prophecy 

lOI 


America  in  the  East 

which  we  are  seeing  fulfilled:  "America  is 
the  hope  of  Asia  beyond  the  Malay  peninsula 
[as  looked  at  in  pre-Californian  days  eastward 
through  Europe],  and  her  noblest  efforts 
shall  find  a  becoming  theatre  there." 

Nevertheless,  from  these  exiles  in  the  sea 
the  language  of  Nippon  was  learned,  and 
interpreters  like  Dr.  S.  Wells  Williams 
were  trained,  and  Japanese  young  men  were 
brought  to  the  United  States  and  educated. 
Among  them  were  Kinzo,  Manjiro,  who  was 
the  interpreter  (in  the  rear  tent,  unknown  to 
Perry)  in  the  first  American  treaty  negotia- 
tions, and  Heco,  who  started  the  first  news- 
paper in  Japan,  the  forerunner  of  the  "  Hiogo 
News,"  the  "  Tokio  Times,"  and  the  "  Tokio 
Independent,"  in  which  Messrs.  Wainwright, 
E.  H.  House,  and  E.  W.  Eastlake  have  won 
journalistic  honors,  if  not  emolument. 

With  continued  insult  and  determination, 
official  Japan  repelled  every  attempt  to  open 
trade  or  to  receive  shipwrecked  natives  from 
afar  or  picked  up  on  the  sea.  Meanwhile 
Americans  were  being  cast  ashore  in  Japan. 
The  Yankee  v^^halers,  finding  no  game  on  the 
eastern    side   of  their    continent,   were    com- 

102 


The  Coming  of  the  Americans 

pelled  to  weather  Cape  Horn  and  go  north 
toward  the  polar  seas,  and  from  time  to  time 
their  vessels  foundered  or  went  ashore.  Not 
being  always  the  best  specimens  of  Christian 
civilization,  our  tars  were  treated  roughly  and 
sometimes  with  needless  cruelty  by  the  Jap- 
anese. It  was  from  among  these  sailors  that 
the  first  teacher  of  English  in  Japan  came 
forth.  Ronald  McDonald  was  born  at  a 
settlement  which  was  the  true  fruit  of  our 
commerce  with  China  —  Astoria,  in  Oregon. 

It  soon  became  necessary  to  break  down 
Japanese  barbarism  in  refusing  to  receive 
their  own  people,  and  to  demand  justice  and 
secure  humanity  in  the  treatment  of  Ameri- 
can sailors.  With  firmness,  but  without 
bloodshed.  Commander  Glynn,  in  1848,  with 
his  little  ten-gun  brig,  gave  the  insolent  offi- 
cers at  Nagasaki  a  lesson  not  speedily  for- 
gotten. McDougal  in  the  ^'  Wyoming  '*  and 
Pearson  in  the  "  Ta-Kiang "  maintained  the 
American  record  of  valor  —  so  confessedly 
medicinal  and  alterative  to  the  Japanese  mind 
—  at  Shimonoseki  in  1863  and  1864. 

The  Japanese  themselves  are  now  agitating 
the  matter  of  erecting  a  great  monument  to 
103 


America  in  the  East 

Commodore  Perry.  Having  learned  the 
temper  of  these  Oriental  insulars,  this  Rhode 
Islander  actually  excelled  them  in  those  elab- 
orate forms  and  etiquette  which  passed  for 
morals  and  were  made  substitutes  for  char- 
acter in  old  Japan.  Having  himself  selected 
his  presents,  he  gave  these  people  on  the 
strand  at  Yokohama  an  object-lesson,  show- 
ing them  in  actual  operation  the  material 
forces  of  the  West,  —  the  railway,  locomotive 
and  train,  the  telegraph,  electric  batteries, 
ploughs,  sewing-machines,  and  other  tools 
especially  the  inventions  of  Americans.  Corn- 
crackers  and  rice-hullers,  after  Colt's  revolvers, 
were  the  most  immediately  popular,  and 
some  of  the  former  are  still  in  use  in  Yezo. 

Perry's  successor,  Townsend  Harris,  with- 
out a  ship  or  a  soldier,  conquered  by  the 
simple  might  of  truth,  piercing  the  hoary 
system  of  politics  built  on  lies,  and  ripping 
open  the  armor  of  laminated  deception  which 
the  native  diplomatists  then  gloried  in.  He 
was  wrong  in  thinking  the  Japanese  "  the 
greatest  liars  on  earth."  Nevertheless,  It  will 
be  a  grand  day  to  Japan  when  simple  truth 
becomes  the  basis  of  ordinary  business  trans- 
104 


The  Japanese  Railway  Engineer,  Ishikawa. 


The  Coming  of  the  Americans 

actions,  the  staple  of  the  newspapers,  and 
the  regulating  principle  in  etiquette  and  forms 
of  language.  Japanese  freely  acknowledge 
that  they  never  had  a  better  friend  than 
Townsend  Harris.  His  honesty  and  friend- 
ship stand  as  a  true  type,  as  we  hope,  of  the 
abiding  friendship  of  the  United  States  for 
the  Mikado's  empire. 

At  the  first  opportunity  offered  under  the 
treaty,  the  American  missionary-teacher  en- 
tered into  the  country.  Christianity  had  been 
for  two  centuries  under  ban.  To  the  common 
people,  the  very  word  was  a  synonym  with 
sorcery  and  plague.  To  the  scholar  and 
gentleman,  it  was  the  sign  of  all  conceivable 
dangers.  The  multitude,  driven  like  sheep 
under  official  compulsion,  streamed  through 
a  wicket  trampling  on  the  engraved  copper 
image  of  Jesus.  Each  gentleman  had  to 
swear,  "  on  the  true  faith  of  a  Samurai,"  that 
in  his  household  was  no  believer  in  "the 
corrupt  sect."  The  Buddhist  priest  was  the 
sleuth-hound  after  heresy,  the  guardian  be- 
tween the  cradle  and  the  grave  against  the 
feared  and  hated  leaven  which  has  since  1870 
remade  and  is  remaking  the  nation.  Open- 
105 


America  in  the  East 

ing  the  dispensary,  Dr.  Hepburn  began  his 
healing  and  cleansing  work  with  the  crowds 
of  filthy  and  diseased  humanity.  What  grand 
names  are  those  of  Simmons,  Berry,  Whit- 
ney, Harwell,  Taylor,  Cutter,  McCartee,  and 
others  in  the  medical  annals  of  Japan  1  Un- 
able to  preach,  the  Christian  missionary  be- 
came a  teacher,  and  founded  the  very  first 
schools  of  science  and  languages. 

We  make  no  pretence  of  even  mentioning 
in  this  paper  the  work  done  by  British, 
French,  Germans,  Dutch,  and  others.  It  is 
an  Englishman  that  says,  "  New  Japan  is  the 
creation  of  the  foreign  employee,"  and,  "No 
less  a  feat  than  the  reform  of  the  entire  edu- 
cational system  was  chiefly  the  work  of  a 
handful  of  Americans." 

Waiting  patiently  till  prejudice  had  been 
removed  and  the  way  opened,  the  American 
missionaries  began  the  teaching  of  Western 
learning  and  languages,  putting  into  the  hands 
of  young  men  those  keys  that  should  open  the 
treasures  of  literature,  science,  and  civiliza- 
tion. At  Nagasaki,  Guido  F.  Verbeck  organ- 
ized and  taught,  from  1859  to  1869,  a 
government  school  in  which  many  of  the  men 
106 


The  Coming  of  the  Americans 

since  eminent  in  reform  and  progressive  gov- 
ernment were  trained.  After,  in  the  Revolu- 
tion of  1868,  the  young  men,  expert  with 
American  rifles  but  inexperienced  in  foreign 
diplomacy  and  methods,  had  transported  the 
Emperor  and  the  national  administration  from 
Kioto  to  Tokio,  they  called  Mr.  Verbeck 
to  be  the  head  of  the  Imperial  University, 
and  their  adviser  in  that  education  which 
they  declared  to  be  the  basis  of  all  progress. 

It  was  this  quiet,  forceful  man  who 
recommended,  planned,  and  elaborated,  not 
only  the  system  of  national  education,  but 
also  the  great  embassy  which  went  around 
the  world,  1872-74,  and  which  so  turned  the 
minds  of  the  leading  men  of  Japan  toward 
Western  ideas  and  methods  of  progress. 
Verbeck  wrought  out  the  details,  and,  when 
the  list  was  complete,  found,  to  his  delighted 
surprise,  that  over  one-half  of  the  elect  mem- 
bers of  the  embassy  had  been  his  pupils. 
When  the  Hon.  David  Murray  was  made 
Superintendent  of  Education,  serving  for 
.several  years,  Mr.  Verbeck  remained  the  ad- 
viser of  the  Cabinet  in  national  and  local 
matters.  It  was  he  who  influenced  the  Gov- 
107 


America  in  the  East 

ernment  to  cease  persecuting  the  Christians, 
and  to  end  the  savagery  which  disgraced  the 
first  years  of  the  Restoration.  For  a  time 
he  was  general  factotum,  doing  the  work 
which  was  afterwards  distributed  among  ex- 
pert advisers,  among  whom  were  E.  Peshine 
Smith,  of  Rochester,  in  the  Foreign  Office, 
and  General  George  B.  Williams,  of  Indiana, 
who  superintended  the  raising  of  loans  abroad 
and  the  carrying  out  of  that  scheme  of  in- 
ternal revenue  which,  like  the  banking  laws 
and  coinage  of  Japan,  was  borrowed  from 
America ;  Samuel  M.  Bryan  founded  the 
foreign  postal  system,  personally  securing 
signatures  to  postal  treaties,  first,  with  the 
United  States  and  then  with  European  Gov- 
ernments. 

Mr.  Verbeck  translated  Into  the  vernacular, 
for  the  Government  the  "  Code  Napoleon,'* 
Bluntschli's  "  Staatsrecht,"  and  "  The  Thou- 
sand Legal  Maxims,'*  and  for  the  people 
"  The  Book  of  Psalms  '* —  probably  the  best 
piece  of  translation  ever  done  into  the  verna- 
cular. Greatest  of  the  aliens  who  wrought 
to  build  the  New  Japan  was  Guldo  Verbeck. 


1 08 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE    MISSIONARY    STORY 

OUR  Other  missionaries,  notably  S.  R, 
Brown,  the  author  of  grammars  and 
language  books,  trained  some  of  the  very  first 
young  statesmen  of  New  Japan.  Dr.  J.  C. 
Hepburn,  besides  healing  tens  of  thousands  of 
poor  people,  made  the  standard  dictionary  on 
which  all  others  have  since  been  based,  and,  with 
helpers,  completed  the  Bible  in  Japanese.  Dr. 
J.  C.  Berry,  the  father  of  prison  reform  in 
Japan,  also  originated  and  was  prominent  in 
the  work,  which  was  practically  carried  out 
by  Miss  Richards  and  especially  Miss  Tal- 
cott,  of  training  nurses.  In  the  war  of  1894, 
Japan  had  a  superb  hospital  system,  with 
nine  hundred  trained  women  nurses  to  draw 
upon,  while  China  actually  went  to  war  with- 
out a  hospital  corps. 

Not  least  of  all  their  multifarious  work  was 
the  training  of  the    natives  in  self-government 
and     parliamentary    procedure    which     hun- 
109 


America  in  the  East 

dreds  of  American  missionaries  gave  to 
thousands  of  Japanese  young  men,  thus  pre- 
paring the  nation  for  representative  institu- 
tions. The  church  meetings  and  ecclesiasti- 
cal conventions  carried  on  by  natives,  under 
American  oversigh  formed  a  school  of  prac- 
tical civics  also.  It  is,  therefore,  no  wonder 
that  in  the  Japanese  Cabinet  and  house  of 
Commons  the  number  of  Christian  men  and 
church  officers  is  out  of  all  proportion  numer- 
ous as  compared  v/ith  men  of  other  religions 
or  of  none. 

It  was  a  Boston  merchant,  Alpheus  Hardy, 
who  educated  Neesima,  and  American  money 
that  for  the  most  part  established  the  Do- 
shisha  University  in  Kioto,  with  its  halls  of 
science  and  theology.  American  teachers  by 
the  hundreds,  and  university  graduates  as 
professors  by  the  score,  in  the  private  and 
Government  schools  and  the  Imperial  Uni- 
versity, have  moulded  the  minds  of  young 
Japan.  Fukuzawa,  Japan's  "  grand  old  man  " 
and  admirer  of  America,  who  will  have  no 
office,  but  directs  a  university  and  is  "  the 
intellectual  father  of  one-half  of  the  young 
men  now  in  office,"  may  almost  be  called  a 
no 


The  Missionary  Story 

pupil  of  the  United  States.  The  Noimal 
School  for  men  and  women  "  has  been  the 
work  of  a  Kentucky  gentleman,  M.  M.  Scott, 
A.  M.,'"  now  of  Honolulu.  Musical  education 
was  introduced  and  established  by  Luther 
W.  Mason,  of  Boston.  The  names  of  Cap- 
tain L.  L.  Janes,  Professor  Terry,  Dr.  J. 
C.  Cutter,  are  but  a  few  in  the  work  of 
education. 

The  Japanese  woman,  though  far  above 
the  status  of  her  sisters  in  China  or  India, 
had  no  career  or  vocation  open  to  her  beyond 
that  in  the  house  or  farm.  One-half  of 
Japan  was  shut  off  from  intellectual  culture. 
The  coming  of  missionaries,  with  homes  and 
wives,  gave  an  object-lesson  which  did  indeed 
disturb  the  faultless  and  lifeless  symmetry  of 
old  Japanese  ideals.  Yet  they  awoke  also 
new  hope  and  created  new  possibilities  for 
the  Japanese  women.  The  names  of  Ameri- 
can Christian  women — Hepburn,  Pruyn, 
Crosby,  Pearson,  Straight,  Bacon,  Pierce, 
Buckley,  Richards,  Talcott,  and  others  who 
have  preached  and  lived  the  Christian  doc- 
trine of  the  worth  of  woman,  equally  with  the 
man  the  child  of  God,  will  not  soon  be  for- 
III 


America  in  the  East 

gotten.  Even  the  most  vitriolic  critic  and 
caricaturist  of  missionaries,  writing  of  them 
as  "  patterns  of  social  cleanliness  and  de- 
corum," has  shown  their  mighty  influence  in 
purifying  the  Japanese  home. 

All  over  the  Empire  to-day  the  brighter, 
the  more  thoughtful,  the  more  purposeful 
faces  of  Japanese  women  are  as  different 
from  the  creations  of  Sir  Edwin  Arnold  or 
Pierre  Loti  as  can  be  imagined.  The  new 
woman  in  Japan,  besides  making  a  new  kind 
of  home,  is  creating  a  sentiment  against 
polygamy  and  legalized  prostitution.  She  is 
forward  in  reform,  is  helping  to  create  a 
Christian  literature,  and  in  manifold  ways  is 
bringing  in  that  better  day  which  is  steadily 
coming.  The  best  book  on  Japanese  girls 
and  women  was  written  by  an  American 
lady,  Alice  M.  Bacon.  Of  the  twelve  best 
books  on  Japan  by  writers  of  all  nations,  as 
listed  by  the  English  Professor,  B.  H.  Cham- 
berlain, all  except  one  in  the  first  half-dozen 
are  by  Americans. 

Even,  in  the  almost  periodical  reactions, 
the  outbursts  of  Chauvinism,  the  cry  of 
"Japan  for  the  Japanese,"  the  positive  bla- 

112 


The  Missionary  Story 

tancy  and  maudlin  sentimentalism  of  official 
emissaries  who  teach  with  authority  the  unique 
derivation  of  the  Japanese  direct  from  "  the 
gods,"  do  not  and  cannot  conceal  the  reality 
of  the  good  work  done  by  the  Americans. 
Christianity  has  galvanized  moribund  Buddh- 
ism into  life,  and  compelled  the  priests  to 
work  for  the  good  of  the  people.  Gorged 
with  Government  patronage,  accumulated 
wealth,  and  unchallenged  power.  Buddhism 
had  ceased  to  grow.  Its  priests  were  sensual 
and  selfish,  even  to  a  proverb ;  but  the  tre- 
mendous assaults  of  Christianity  and  its 
steady  advance  compelled  the  bonzes  to 
searchings  of  heart.  Now  there  are  many 
things  in  Japanese  Buddhism  which  were 
unknown  thirty  years  ago,  such  as  schools  of 
science  and  theology,  with  newspapers,  chari- 
table enterprises,  ethical  reform,  and  an 
entirely  new  atmosphere  of  activity. 


"3 


CHAPTER   XVI 

LITERATURE,    SCIENCE,    AND    DIPLOMACY 

FROM  the  decade  following  the  appari- 
tion of  Perry's  peaceful  armada,  foreign 
influences,  in  law,  theology,  medicine,  the 
sciences,  agriculture,  engineering,  journalism, 
education,  have  been  multifarious  and  ever  in 
overwhelming  force.  There  would  have  been 
no  Japan,  such  as  we  see  to-day,  without  the 
foreigner's  aid.  One  of  the  first  to  give  the 
Japanese  a  new  view  of  the  universe,  as  well 
as  to  introduce  blasting  and  steam-pumping 
in  the  mines,  was  Raphael  Pumpelly,  the 
geologist,  born  at  Owego,  New  York,  and  en- 
gaged in  1861-63  in  exploration  of  the  island 
of  Yezo.  His  book  "  Across  America  and 
Asia**  was  a  revelation  in  science,  as  John 
Lafarge's  chapter  in  it  was  of  that  Japanese 
art  which  Fenollosa,  of  Salem,  Massachusetts, 
has  constrained  the  elect  heirs  to  revere  and  pre- 
serve. This  great  island  of  Yezo,  its  mines, 
114 


Literature,  Science,  Diplomacy- 
its  coal,  its  geology,  have  been  almost  wholly 
exploited  by  Americans.  The  capital,  Sap- 
poro, has  been  laid  out  like  a  city  in  the 
United  States,  and  the  railways  and  machinery 
are  from  the  same  country. 

With  this  general  development,  or  with 
scientific  work  and  progress  in  Japan,  are 
associated  the  honored  names  of  William 
P.  Blake,  Dr.  Antisell,  Horace  Capron, 
Stuart  Eldredge,  Benjamin  Smith  Lyman, 
Henry  Smith  Munroe,  Edward  Sylvester 
Morse,  C.  O.  Whitman,  H.  M.  Paul,  T.  C. 
Mendenhall,  Winfield  Scott  Chaplin,  John  C. 
Cutter,  N.  Willis  Whitney,  F.  F.  Jewett, 
Edward  Warren  Clark,  M.  N.  WyckofF, 
William  S.  Clark,  J.  A.  L.  Waddell,  William 
Wheeler,  D.  P.  Penhallow,  William  P. 
Brooks,  Cecil  PI.  Peabody,  Ulysses  Treat, 
Dr.  Leland,  D.  W.  Ap  Jones,  Joseph 
Ury  Crawford,  and  scores  of  others,  who 
must  pardon  the  writer  for  sins  of  omis- 
sion. The  whole  world  is  indebted  to  the 
American  Fenollosa  for  his  success  in  per- 
suading the  Japanese  to  preserve  and  main- 
tain, not  only  their  ancient  treasures,  but 
the  native  ideals  and  principles  of  their  art. 


Hi 


America  in  the  East 

The  average  spectator  who  sees  the  brightly 
lacquered  street-car  moving  rapidly  along, 
by  cable  underneath  or  trolley  overhead,  may 
not  take  great  interest  in  the  power-house. 
So  one  sees  wonderful  results  in  Japan  with- 
out thinking  much  of  the  "  Yatoi-tojin,"  or 
hired  foreigner.  Certain  little  "  folders," 
which  one  could  buy  in  Tokio  for  a  cent  or 
two,  giving  the  names  and  salaries  of  the  for- 
eign employees,  though  perhaps  beneath  the 
notice  of  a  native  historian,  are  significant  to 
the  philosophical  student  who  inquires  into 
causes. 

Probably  Bowditch's  "  Navigator  '*  was  the 
first  American  work  put  into  Japanese,  but 
whole  series  of  our  educational  text-books, 
from  Webster's  Spelling-Book  and  Diction- 
ary up  through  all  lines  of  science,  geographi- 
cal, historical,  intellectual,  and  theological 
science,  have  been  bought,  read,  used,  trans- 
lated, or  adapted  by  the  tens  of  thousands  of 
copies.  Wilson,  Pinneo,  Mitchell,  Quack- 
enbos,  Goodrich,  Wayland,  Haven,  Potter, 
Sanders,  Brown,  Guyot,  Murray,  Gray, 
Morse,  Hitchcock,  Jarvis,  Cutter,  Robinson, 
Perry,  Walker,  Swinton,  Carey,  Woolsey, 
ii6 


Literature,  Science,  Diplomacy 

Draper,  to  say  nothing  of  American  lights  in 
theology  and  belles-lettres,  are  names  stand- 
ing for  single  books  or  series,  and  known  to 
thousands  of  the  Mikado's  subjects.  Our 
political  classics,  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, Washington's  Farewell  Address,  and 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  were 
early  and  accurately  done  into  Japanese. 
Lives  of  Washington,  Franklin,  Perry,  and 
other  statesmen  have  been  widely  read. 
"  The  perseverance  of  Columbus,  the  pluck 
of  Captain  John  Smith,  the  gentleness  of 
Pocahontas,  the  endurance  of  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers,  the  virtues  of  Washington,  the  good 
sense  of  Franklin,  the  sturdy  manhood  and 
integrity  of  Lincoln,  are  oft-quoted  examples  " 
in  Japan,  writes  a  Japanese.  The  first,  and 
for  a  few  years  almost  the  only,  history  of  the 
world  read  was  that  by  Peter  Parley,  whose 
form  of  easy  English  had  a  tremendous 
fascination  for  the  Japanese.  Indeed,  until 
within  the  past  decade,  it  was  very  manifest 
that  the  English  style  of  nearly  all  Japanese 
who  wrote  English  had  been  first  modelled  on 
the  style  of  Peter  Parley,  the  Yankee  whose 
penname  stands  for  a  literary  clan  In  which 
117 


America  in  the  East 

even  Hawthorne  was  a  kinsman.  Better 
models  and  higher  literature  were  studied, 
and  now  "  the  new  book  in  New  Japan " 
shows  most  decidedly  the  strong  influence  of 
American  methods  and  authors.  Hundreds 
of  natives  now  write  English  fluently  and 
correctly. 

Theoretically,  the  national  constitution  of 
1889  is  the  gift  of  the  Emperor  to  his  people. 
In  reality,  it  is  the  definite  evolution  of  forces 
long  gathering,  and  taking  shape  and  form 
chiefly  from  the  environment  and  influence 
of  the  United  States  —  Japan's  nearest  west- 
ern neighbor.  In  the  '40' s,  a  Japanese 
governor,  wishing  to  find  out  the  rank  of  a 
certain  American  commander,  asked  a  ship- 
wrecked American  sailor,  telling  Jack  to  be- 
gin at  the  beginning  and  descend.  He  did 
so,  and  gave  as  the  source  of  all  authority 
"the  people."  This  puzzled  the  Japanese 
officer.  Now,  however,  it  is  quite  easy  for 
even  Cabinet  officers  in  Tokio  to  understand 
how  the  people  can  be  first  in  power,  for  none 
there  be,  or  can  be,  but  must  reckon  with 
popular  opinion,  as  created  by  the  press  and 
the  widespread  information  and  the  spirit  of 
118 


Literature,  Science,  Diplomacy 

the  age.  Indeed,  the  last  Cabinet  split  ii. 
November,  1898,  on  a  very  small  rock — the 
rather  too  previous  reference  in  his  speech^ 
by  the  Minister  of  Education,  to  the  possi- 
bility of  Japan's  becoming  a  republic. 

In  diplomacy,  Americans  have  been  first  in 
showing  friendship,  giving  help  and  stimulus 
and  example,  to  the  Japanese.  In  naval  ex- 
ploits, they  taught  needed  lessons,  now  frankly 
acknowledged  by  those  who  received  them. 
The  generous  work  of  Perry  and  Harris  are 
well  understood  by  the  Japanese,  who  remem- 
ber also  that  our  country  was  the  first  to 
make  a  postal  and  an  extradition  treaty,  and 
also,  without  waiting  for  any  precedent  and 
without  the  approval  of  France,  Holland,  or 
Great  Britain,  made  restitution  of  the  Shimo- 
noseki  indemnity  of  1863,  which  money  was 
expended  by  Japan  in  educational  purposes. 
The  United  States  also  led  the  way  in  desire 
and  determination  to  revise  the  old  treaties 
in  the  interests  of  righteousness,  though,  to 
our  shame,  it  resulted  that  Great  Britain 
finally  won  the  credit  which  was  properly 
due  to  our  country.  John  A.  Bingham,  as 
Premier  Matsugata  gladly  acknowledges,  per- 


America  in  the  East 

sonally   instructed   the   leaders   of  Japan   in 
what  to  do  and  what  to  avoid. 

Over  twenty  years  ago  I  hinted  at  the  diffi- 
culty of  a  foreigner's  writing  a  good  history 
of  Japan,  not  so  much  from  lack  of  materials 
as  from  psychological  differences.  Yet  the 
domain  of  native  thought  is  now  fairly  well 
exploited,  and  almost  wholly  by  Americans. 
They  have  opened  the  minds  of  the  Japanese, 
and  have  shown  us  how  they  think  and  feel. 
Richard  Hildreth,  Edward  H.  House,  Per- 
cival  Lowell,  Lafcadio  Hearn,  Henry  T. 
Finck,  John  Lafarge,  Arthur  May  Knapp,  F. 
Warrington  Eastlake,  Alice  Bacon,  Edward 
Greey,  Arthur  C.  Maclay,  Edward  S.  Morse, 
John  Luther  Long,  M.  L.  Gordon,  Flora  B. 
Harris,  E.  R.  Scidmore,  Roger  Riordan,  with 
S.  R.  Brown  and  J.  C.  Hepburn,  George 
William  Knox,  Duane  B,  Simmons,  J.  H. 
Wigmore,  who  were  makers  of  the  tools  for 
analysis  and  vision,  have  photographed  for 
us  the  Japanese  soul.  Leader  of  all  in  prac- 
tical mastery  of  the  Japanese  mind  and  will, 
and  in  ability  to  turn  the  heart  of  the  nation's 
statesmen  whither  he  would,  was  the  late 
Guido  F.  Verbeck.     These  men  have  shown 

I20 


Literature,  Science,  Diplomacy 

us  the  mental  traits,  revealed  the  philosophy 
and  literature,  and  thus  made  revelation  of 
the  background  whence  the  native  triumphs 
of  art  have  sprung  and  the  flowers  of  genius 
and  enterprise  have  bloomed. 

In  this  power  to  discover  and  measurably 
to  understand  the  mind  of  the  Japanese,  we 
discern  one  proof  of  the  ability  of  Americans, 
as  of  Englishmen,  to  deal  successfully  with 
Asiatic  peoples. 


12t 


CHAPTER   XVII 

THE    AMERICANS    IN    KOREA 

WHAT  Americans  have  wrought  in 
Japan,  they  have  succeeded  in  doing 
also  in  Korea.  Here  for  centuries  the  her- 
mit's policy  had  been  pursued  of  keeping  out 
foreigners,  devastating  the  frontiers,  and  re- 
straining the  people  inside  the  country. 
Perry's  peaceful  opening  of  one  hermit 
nation  in  1854  was  the  model  and  inspiration 
in  1876  to  Kuroda  and  Mori  in  luring  Korea 
out  of  her  cave  by  treaty  instead  of  by  blood- 
shed. In  1882  Commodore  Shufeldt,  in  the 
United  States  steamer  "  Swatara,"  after  pre- 
vious failures  and  great  perseverance,  made  the 
first  treaty  of  a  Western  nation  with  the  Land 
of  Morning  Calm.  Soon  the  white-clothed 
Koreans  were  seen  on  Broadway,  President 
Arthur,  in  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel,  receiving 
on  Evacuation  Day  these  envoys  with  heads 
caged  in  horsehair.  In  June,  1884,  after  the 
riot  and  coup  d'etat  of  December  4,  when, 
122 


The  Americans  in  Korea 

with  the  hoary  old  weapons  of  assassination,  " 
some  hasty  reformers  "  moved-  a  vote  of  cen- 
sure" upon  their  enemies,  the  King's  Min- 
isters, and  blew  a  hurricane  of  reform  for 
forty-eight  hours,  there  were  heads  off  and  a 
battle-field.  Such  attempted  condensation  of 
centuries  of  evolution  into  a  space  of  time 
between  two  sunrises  failed.  j      ^^ 

Then  an  American  missionary.  Dr.  KFenry  _ 
N.  Allen,  demonstrated  the  superiority  of 
Western  surgical  methods.  This  opened  the 
door.  Soon  followed  hospitals,  dispensaries, 
day-schools,  churches,  the  translation  of  the 
Bible  into  Korean,  orphanages,  Sunday- 
schools,  Christian  literature,  newspapers  and 
periodicals,  and  the  dawning  of  a  new  world 
of  ideas  and  the  making  of  new  men  and 
women.  The  war  of  1894—5  prepared  the 
way  for  mighty  changes.  The  first  railway 
from  Chemulpo  to  Seoul,  with  Its  Iron  bridges 
and  modern  equipments,  and  the  first  electric 
lights  and  street-railways  in  Seoul,  the  ex- 
ploitation and  development  of  the  mines,  have 
been  begun  and  carried  out  by  Americans. 
The  renovation  of  the  capital  city  from  the 
similitude  of  a  pig-sty  to  one  of  the  brightest 
123 


America  in  the  East 

and  cleanest  cities  in  the  East  is  the  work 
of  native  officers  who  had  experience  in 
Washington.  In  a  word,  the  making  of 
grammars  and  dictionaries  for  the  mastery 
of  the  language,  the  educational  system,  the 
inception  of  railways,  bridges,  and  other  ma- 
terial enterprises,  show  the  practical  quality 
of  the  mind  and  character  of  Americans,  and 
their  ability  to  grapple  with  those  new  prob- 
lems which  now  confront  us. 


124 


f^      OF  THK  '^ 

UNIVERSITY 
ig^CALIFQ^ 


CHAPTER   XVIII 


OUR  new  possessions  lie  nearly  midway 
between  Cuba  and  the  Philippines, 
both  as  to  latitude  and  longitude.  In  area, 
they  are  about  the  size  of  Connecticut  and 
Delaware  combined.  Of  the  twelve  islands, 
four  are  barren  rocks,  one  is  the  home  of 
lepers,  seven  are  fertile,  beautiful,  and  peopled. 
Hawaii  is  the  half-way  house  between  conti- 
nental shores.  Cut  by  the  parallels  which 
pass  through  Mexico  and  Annam,  it  is  rich 
in  sub-tropical  fruits  and  food,  withal  hand- 
somely suitable  as  a  haven  for  ships  and  the 
storage  of  coal,  which  nowadays  is  of  more 
value  than  the  winds  to  the  sailor.  It  seems 
to  be  very  distant  and  to  lie  so  far  out  west 
in  the  Pacific  Ocean  as  to  be  semi- Asiatic  or 
"Oriental,"  yet  it  is  several  hundred  miles 
this  side  of  the  western  end  of  our  Alaskan 
possessions.  Indeed,  now  that  the  Philip- 
pines have  become  ours,  to  remain  under  the 
125 


America  in  the  East 

Stars  and  Stripes,  we  shall  have  to  revise  our 
use  of  the  terms  "East"  and  "West." 
Hawaii  has  a  name  easily  pronounced.  Sen- 
timentally, it  has  long  been  part  of  America. 
It  is  now  so  in  reality. 

Although  Spaniards  first  discovered  Hawaii, 
and  some  were  even  wrecked  upon  its  shores, 
mingling  by  intermarriage  their  blood  with 
natives,  whose  descendants,  the  Kekea,  show 
a  light  skin,  Caucasian  facial  contour,  syid 
freckled  faces,  yet  Captain  Cook's  is  the  first 
European  name  associated  with  this  new  bit 
of  the  United  States.  He  went  out  into  the 
South  Seas  to  observe  the  transit  of  Venus 
over  the  face  of  the  sun,  setting  sail  from 
Plymouth  in  the  ship  "  Endeavour."  He 
succeeded  handsomely.  He  added  the  con- 
tinent of  the  kangaroo  to  Great  Britain,  and 
returned  in  1771.  On  his  second  journey, 
to  discover  the  supposed  unknown  continent 
Terra  Australis,  he  left  Plymouth  July  13, 
1772.  In  1778  he  got  back,  having  lost  but 
one  man  and  hardly  a  spar,  to  tell  of  the 
Hawaiian  Islands,  which  he  had  seen  in  1778. 
These  he  named  after  the  reputed  noble  in- 
ventor of  stratified  refreshments.  This  worthy 
126 


Hawaii,  our  New  Possession 

fourth  Earl  of  Sandwich,  John  Montague, 
who  liked  to  play  cards  without  intermis- 
sion, had  his  luncheon,  of  slices  of  bread 
inclosing  ham,  brought  to  him  at  the  gaming- 
table. 

About  this  time  our  fathers  were  also  in- 
terested in  transits,  and  the  elements  for  that 
of  Venus  over  the  sun's  disk,  on  December  9, 
1774,  were  calculated  by  our  own  Rittenhouse, 
of  Philadelphia.  The  platform  used  by  the 
astronomers  stood  in  Independence  Square, 
and  from  it  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
when  fully  signed,  was  read  to  the  people. 
It  showed  a  new-born  political  star  moving 
across  the  disk  of  history.  In  our  generation 
we  have  seen,  on  July  4,  1894,  the  Republic 
of  Hawaii,  like  lovely  Venus,  rising  out  of  the 
sea,  or  a  new  star  above  the  horizon.  This 
same  month  of  July  is  rich  in  births  and 
transitions.  It  is  that  also  of  the  Dutch 
Declaration  of  Independence  from  Spain,  in 
1579,  as  well  as  that  of  the  acceptance  by  the 
United  States  of  America  of  the  gift  of  the 
first  Republic  in  the  Pacific,  which  hence- 
forth shines  as  a  luminary  in  the  American 
galaxy. 

127 


America  m  the  East 

How  many  people  are  in  our  new  oceanic 
territory?  The  latest  census,  that  of  1896, 
enumerated  109,020  persons.  Of  pure  Ha- 
waiians,  there  were  31,019  ;  of  part  Hawaiian 
blood,  8,045  '  of  Japanese,  24,407  ;  of  Chinese, 
21,616  ;  of  Portuguese,  15,191  ;  leaving  8,302 
Americans  and  Europeans,  the  former  being 
by  far  in  majority  and  constituting  the  bulk 
of  the  educated  persons  of  influence  and 
property. 

Let  us  look  at  each  of  these  strains  of 
humanity.  While  probably  the  majority  of 
Asiatics  in  the  islands  are  immigrants  from 
China  and  Japan,  most  of  the  Portuguese, 
certainly  one-half  of  them,  were  born  in  the 
archipelago.  It  is  believed  that  about  fifteen 
thousand  persons  of  European  or  American 
blood  first  saw  the  light  in  Hawaii.  Thou- 
sands of  children  also  are  the  offspring  of 
Chinese  and  Japanese  fathers  and  Hawaiian 
mothers,  forming  a  stock  which  is  noticeably 
an  improvement  on  the  aboriginal  element. 
The  major  portion  of  the  white  foreigners 
who  are  not  Americans  are  British,  Scandi- 
navian, and  German. 

Whence  came  the  Hawaiians  ?     Who  shall 
128 


Hawaii,  our  New  Possession 

declare  their  generation  ?  It  is  like  trying  to 
separate  giants  in  combat,  or  like  riding  be- 
tween the  fires  of  two  hostile  armies,  to  attempt 
decision  of  such  a  question.  One  line  of 
writers  declare  in  their  books  that  the  Kana- 
kas, or  Hawaiians,  emigrated  from  the  East, 
—  that  is,  from  America.  This  theory  bases 
itself  upon  the  general  trend  of  the  winds  and 
ocean  currents,  and  links  the  islanders  with 
the  Toltecs  of  Mexico,  while  certain  resem- 
blances in  mental  traits  and  physical  features 
are  also  pointed  out. 

Other  scholars  fortify  their  conclusions  that 
the  Hawaiians  came  from  the  West,  or  Asia, 
by  arguments  drawn  from  language  and  the 
similarity  of  customs,  tools,  and  household 
equipments  to  those  in  the  Malay  island 
world.  They  think  that  the  Hawaiians  are 
among  the  oldest  of  the  Polynesian  peoples. 
They  argue  that  the  various  archipelagoes  and 
islands  of  the  southern  Pacific  were  colonized 
by  people  of  an  ancient  branch  of  the  Malay 
race,  who  started  from  what  is  now  the  Dutch 
East  Indies,  and  gradually  scattered  them- 
selves over  the  face  of  the  seas.  The  con- 
flict of  opinions,  between  those  who  look  to 
9  129 


America  in  the  East 

the  sunrise  and  the  others  who  point  to  the 
sunset,  has  in  its  course  taken  on  features 
which  remind  one  of  that  "  odium  "  which, 
whether  called  theological  or  scientific,  has  its 
seat  in  human  nature,  rather  than  in  the  nature 
of  the  subject  of  inquiry. 

In  reality  the  controversy  illustrates  the 
old  story  of  the  shield  with  two  sides,  for 
nature  seems  to  point  out  that  both  theories 
are  true.  The  well-mapped  ocean-world,  so 
long  studied  by  hydrographers,  shows  clearly 
that  the  Hawaiians  came  from  both  the  West 
and  the  East,  first  from  one  and  then  from 
the  other.  When  we  study  the  action  of  that 
great  Pacific  Gulf  Stream  called  the  Kuro 
Shiwo,  or  Black  Current,  —  first  scientifically 
studied  and  described  by  Captain  Silas  Bent, 
U.  S.  N.,  —  we  find  an  explanation  of  the  mys- 
tery and  the  reconciliation  of  opposing  the- 
ories. From  the  tropical  ocean  boiler  a  river 
of  hot  water  runs  up  from  the  Malay  Archi- 
pelago past  the  Philippines,  Formosa,  Riu 
Kiu,  Japan,  Kuriles,  and  the  Aleutian  Islands. 
Then,  flowing  down  past  the  coast  of  Califor- 
nia and  northern  Mexico,  it  bends  in  half  its 
volume  westward,  and,  as  the  Equatorial 
130 


Hawaii,  our  New  Possession 

Drift  Current,  streams  toward  the  Sandwich 
Islands  and  back  to  Japan.  A  tree  uprooted 
in  a  monsoon  off  Luzon  will  drift  northward, 
eastward,  and  westward,  and  finally  be  stranded 
off  Oahu,  "  swinging  around  the  circle  "  in  a 
way  that  might  have  surprised  Andrew  John- 
son. Boats  disabled  and  driven  out  to  sea 
have  done  the  same  thing.  I  have  the  record 
of  scores  of  such  waifs.  It  was  the  frequent 
rescue  of  these  Japanese  junks  with  dead  and 
living  men  on  board,  by  American  ships, 
which  first  led  to  the  repeated  despatch  of  Qur 
vessels  and  finally  of  a  fleet  to  Japan.  Only 
last  year  a  Japanese  junk  that  had  been  swept 
in  this  semi-circular  and  recurved  current 
stranded  on  one  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands. 

Furthermore,  the  analogies  of  language  and 
the  remarkable  basic  similarity  of  personal 
and  household  arrangements  in  the  whole 
island  world,  from  the  Philippines  to  the 
Sitkan  and  Hawaiian  Archipelagoes,  show 
that  the  North  American  "  Indians,"  of  all 
sorts  and  kinds,  and  the  Hawaiians  are  as 
closely  related  to  one  another  as  are  the  vari- 
ous European  nations.  He  who  studies  the 
line  of  natural  lighthouses,  the  chain  of  land- 
131 


America  in  the  East 

marks,  the  unceasing  food-supply  lying  along 
that  great  circle,  from  the  Malay  Archipelago 
to  Central  America,  has  little  trouble  to  ac- 
count for  the  origin  of  at  least  some  of  the 
natives  of  America  in  Hawaii. 


132 


CHAPTER   XIX 

OUR    NEW    FELLOW-CITIZENS 

A  ROUGH  glance  at  the  history  of 
Hawaii  shows  the  old  story  of  con- 
querors and  conquered,  suggesting  that  every 
portion  of  the  earth  has  been  feudalized  or 
its  land  held  in  military  tenure.  Just  as  the 
Malays  and  Japanese  lived  under  forms  of 
feudalism,  even  before  any  Mendez  Pinto  or 
Captain  Cook  changed  the  unlettered  night 
of  prehistoric  times  into  the  dawn  of  written 
history,  so  the  Hawaiian  had  wrought  out  a 
feudal  system  not  intrinsically  different  from 
that  of  mediaeval  Europe.  Even  to-day,  keen 
observers  believe  they  can  trace  the  blood  of  the 
old  chiefs,  who  through  the  centuries  of  war 
had  struggled  toward  centralization  of  author- 
ity. Before  white  men  came,  Hawaiian  soci- 
ety consisted  of  two  classes,  —  those  who 
owned  land,  and  those  who  did  not.  By  the 
time  Cook  arrived,  there  were  only  five  or 
six  independent  rulers,  each  of  whom  in  his 
^33 


America  in  the  East 

petty  kingdom  was  suzerain  over  vassal  chiefs 
who  supplied  food  or  military  service.  These 
lower  chiefs  were  in  turn  served  by  the  middle 
men  between  the  rulers  and  the  people,  the 
latter  being  little  more  than  serfs.  This 
tendency  to  centralization  became  incarnate 
in  Kamehameha,  who  at  the  end  of  the  last 
century  had  made  himself  sovereign  of  the 
whole  archipelago.  As  in  our  days  there  has 
been  a  tendency  in  hermit  nations  to  self- 
reformation,  so  in  Hawaii  it  seems  hardly 
possible  to  deny  that,  without  foreign  influence 
(though  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  little  in- 
fusion of  Spanish  blood  may  have  had  some 
transforming  power),  there  was  a  tendency  in 
Hawaii  toward  emergence  from  barbarism  into 
civilization. 

The  victor-king,  having  strengthened  his 
kingdom,  died  in  1819.  Fitly  to-day  his 
statue,  in  heroic  attitude  and  ancient  garb, 
stands  in  Honolulu.  The  Hawaiian  symbol 
of  sovereignty  was  not  crown  or  sceptre, 
sword,  mirror,  or  crystal  ball  ;  not  almanac 
or  coinage  ;  but  a  feather  cloak  made  of  thou- 
sands of  "  wee  modest "  feathers,  tipped  with 
a  spot  of  color,  which  grow  singly  on  the 
134 


Our  New  Fellow-Citizens 

inner  bodies  of  a  species  of  little  birds  nearly 
extinct.  Under  the  courageous  leadership  of 
his  son  and  his  widow,  the  age-old  system  of 
Taboo  was  overthrown,  and  the  reactionary 
party  defeated  in  battle.  Then  a  wild  storm 
of  iconoclasm  burst  upon  the  islands.  The 
iconoclasts  destroyed  the  idols  so  thoroughly 
that  it  was  with  difficulty  thereafter  that  any 
could  be  secured  for  curiosities.  When  the 
American  missionaries,  fourteen  strong,  came 
in  1820,  they  found  a  nation  without  a  relig- 
ion. They  reduced  the  language  to  writing, 
introducing  the  printing-press  and  gradually 
fitting  the  natives  for  civilized  government. 
The  evolution  of  rights  and  privileges  fol- 
lowed steadily  upon  the  adoption  of  Christian- 
ity by  the  Hawaiians,  while  the  introduction 
of  horses  and  cattle,  as  well  as  the  innumer- 
able ideas  and  improvements  by  foreigners, 
completely  changed  the  face  of  the  country 
and  of  society,  especially  where  human  beings 
were  grouped  in  villages,  towns,  and  cities. 

The  native  Hawaiian  is  still  the  most  in- 
teresting specimen  of  humanity  to  be  found 
in  the  islands.     He  is  a  winsome  and  a  happy 
person,    this    native    Kanaka.     He    has    the 
135 


America  in  the  East 

genius  of  good  nature.  He  laughs  easily  and 
enjoys  life.  He  troubles  not  himself  about 
to-morrow,  for  he  takes  no  thought  of  it. 
He  is  like  "  our  friend  the  enemy/'  whose 
reply  to  the  call  to  work  to-day  is,  "  Ma- 
nana."  Mother  Nature  has  spoiled  her  island 
children  by  long-continued  indulgence,  and 
they  suffer,  though  perhaps  unconsciously, 
because  she  has  not  chastised  them  enough 
with  hunger  and  the  sweat  of  toil.  On  her 
other  and  favorite  sons  she  has  during  gener- 
ations used  the  discipline  of  leaden  skies, 
sharp  winds,  cold  winters,  rocky  soil,  and 
relentless  foes ;  but  in  Hawaii  there  is  no 
weather,  and,  except  where  lava  boils  or  cakes, 
no  infertile  ground. 

Mark  Twain's  inquirer  for  meteorological 
variety,  who  was  referred  to  Connecticut, 
where  he  could  find  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
three  kinds  of  weather  within  twenty-four 
hours,  would  be  a  bankrupt  in  Honolulu.  In 
perpetual  sunshine,  amid  sapphire  waves,  on 
a  soil  that  continually  laughs  with  fruit  and 
food,  even  without  the  tickling  of  spade  or 
harrow,  the  happy  Hawaiian  has  a  genius  for 
laziness.  He  eats  and  drinks,  having  learned, 
136 


Our  New  Fellow-Citizens 

like  the  waves,  "  thus  to  live  in  the  moment, 
too."  Why  should  he  worry  to  accumulate  ? 
The  seas  abound  with  fish.  The  bananas, 
oranges,  and  cocoanuts  hang  near  his  grass 
hut  by  the  millions.  No  one  could  ever 
locate,  or  even  imagine,  a  Christmas-tree  in 
these  isles,  where  branches  are  ever  laden  with 
color  and  delicacies. 

Only  an  occasional  hour  of  work  is  needed 
to  keep  the  taro-patch  in  order.  The  grass 
seems  to  be  a  permanent  bed,  inviting  to 
continuous  naps,  while  the  flowers,  fragrant 
and  beautiful,  lure  to  amusement  and  decora- 
tion. The  Kanaka  will  indeed  ride  his  pony 
—  purchased  for  what  the  man  in  the  song 
found  in  his  inside  pocket  —  to  town,  and 
there,  on  the  dock  or  post-office  steps,  chat 
over  the  news  by  the  hour ;  but  hard  work 
has  no  charm  for  this  son  of  the  sun.  His 
wife  and  children,  like  himself,  love  flowerS'. 
His  daughter,  flower-garlanded,  and  eschew- 
ing side-saddle,  rides  astride  a  horse  and  gal- 
lops over  road  and  street  like  a  "  scorcher.'' 
Like  her  father  and  brother,  the  maiden  is  at 
home  in  the  surf,  having  learned  to  swim 
when  a  baby. 

137 


America  in  the  East 

We  are  not  likely  to  be  oppressed  finan- 
cially by  our  new  fellow-citizens.  Hawaii 
has  not  yet  reared  a  native  millionaire  or  a 
Shylock.  The  Kanaka  can  keep  a  fruit- 
stand,  a  fish-stall,  or  a  curio-shop,  but  his  is 
not  the  inheritance  of  the  cunning  Jew  or  the 
shrewd  Yankee.  The  results  of  centuries  of 
mercantile  training  are  not  in  him.  Though 
he  makes  a  delightful  servitor  behind  the 
counter,  it  is  rare  indeed  that  he  is  found  in 
the  counting-room,  or  that  his  name  appears 
in  that  of  a  firm  known  abroad  as  well  as  at 
home.  Nevertheless,  you  will  find  him  at 
all  occupations.  He  makes  a  superb  boat- 
man and  fisherman,  a  good  mechanic,  book- 
keeper, compositor,  and  even  editor,  lawyer, 
and  minister.  He  is  a  politician  also,  but  as 
a  cunning  follower,  never  as  a  forceful  leader. 
Life  has  been  too  easy  for  him  and  his  ances- 
tors to  enable  him  to  compete  with  men  from 
Old  or  New  England  ;  with  the  Chinese,  who 
have  reduced  competition  in  practical  life  to  a 
science ;  or  even  with  the  restless  Japanese. 

If,  as  some  German  philosophers  say,  the 
potato  has  caused  the  decadence  and  proved 
the  ruin  of  the  Irish,  so  the  taro  has  pre- 
138 


Our  New  Fellow-Citizens 

vented  the  development  of  the  Hawaiians. 
This  water-plant,  so  common  in  China  and 
Japan,  has  found  its  most  congenial  home  in 
Hawaii.  There  is  no  "  martyrdom  of  man," 
to  use  Winwood  Readers  suggestive  phrase, 
in  Hawaiian  agriculture.  Drop  the  taro  either 
in  the  irrigated  ditches,  anywhere,  or  even  on 
the  uplands,  in  the  moist  climate  of  Hilo, 
continue  to  plant  at  odd  times  during  the  year, 
and  one  acre  will  yield  enough  to  sustain  eigh- 
teen men  during  twelve  months.  One  small 
patch,  kept  from  weeds  by  an  occasional  hour 
of  labor,  will  easily  feed  a  whole  family. 
"Ten  acres  enough*'  in  Yankee  land  may 
safely  lose  its  decimal  in  Hawaii  and  yet 
suffice  for  a  household.  This  crop,  which 
never  fails,  together  with  bananas,  wild  oranges, 
cocoanuts,  and  fish,  makes  sustenance  too  sure. 
There  is  not  enough  of  the  "  discipline  of  un- 
certainty "  for  the  best  human  development. 

Our  new  fellow-citizen  finds  his  chief  food 
in  poi.  This  he  makes  by  cooking,  scraping, 
and  pounding  taro,  waiting  for  a  slight  fer- 
mentation, adding  water,  and  beating  into 
paste.  Then,  probably  after  his  fingers  have 
been  well  greased  with  roast  pig  (somewhat 
139 


America  in  the  East 

after  the  most  approved  style  hinted  at  in 
Charles  Lamb's  "  Dissertation")  or  even  with 
fried  fish,  he  whips  a  goodly  mass  around  his 
forefinger,  and  hoists  it  into  his  mouth,  with- 
out call  for  fork  or  spoon.  In  mo4prn  times, 
his  house  stove  very  likely  consists  of  an  old 
kerosene  tin,  cut  out  at  one  side  and  on  the 
top  ;  but  for  an  open-air  feast  he  uses  an  oven 
dug  in  the  earth.  In  this  his  pigs,  cuts  of 
beef,  and  the  meat  food  generally,  are  wrapped 
up  in  taro-leaves.  Then  the  packages,  being 
properly  stratified  into  a  five  or  six  decker 
sandwich,  guarded  by  moistened  banana-tree 
fibre  and  laid  between  red-hot  stones  at  the 
bottom  and  a  top  mass  of  earth,  are  steamed 
during  five  or  six  hours.  This  process  equals 
Delmonico's,  and  beats  the  revolving  spits  of 
our  hotels,  in  bringing  out  the  flavor.  Thus 
the  most  deliciously  cooked  viands  for  their 
famous  feasts  are  served  on  palm-leaves  al 
fresco. 

Nevertheless,  the  labor  for  such  a  feast  is 
a  severe  tax  on  the  Kanaka.  It  means  a  spurt. 
Then  comes  the  inevitable  reaction.  Fond  as 
he  is  of  drinking  and  being  merry,  the  Ha- 
waiian is  still  more  fond  of  recovering  from 
140 


Our  New  Fellow-Citizens 

weariness  by  resting  long  in  "  sweet  doing 
nothing."  No  wonder  that  the  ceaselessly 
industrious  and  thrifty  Chinamen  beat  the 
natives  at  farming,  and  in  most  lines  of  en- 
deavor that  require  manual  labor,  while  the 
brainy  Yankee  and  the  European  rich  in 
nervous  force  excel  him  wherever  prolonged 
head-work  is  required. 

This  is  true  of  the  majority.  There  is 
another  side,  of  course,  and  a  nobler  side,  but 
of  the  minority.  It  is  a  serious  question,  not 
indeed  whether  the  Hawaiian  must,  but 
whether  he  will,  go  the  way  of  the  dodo  and 
the  bison  ;  for,  besides  being  dandled  in  luxury 
on  Mother  Nature's  lap,  he  has  been  worsted 
in  the  battle  of  life  by  the  horrible  diseases 
which  the  white  men  brought,  when  they 
"  bade  good-bye  to  God  and  self-restraint " 
in  the  old  days,  before  the  better  influences  of 
Christianity  rooted  themselves  in  these  isles 
which  waited  so  long  for  Christ's  law. 

It  is  almost  certain  that  Captain  Cook's 
estimate  of  400,000  natives  is  a  gross  exagger- 
ation. The  number  should  have  been  divided 
by  two  at  least.  Yet  it  is  sad  to-day  to  behold 
so  small  a  survival  of  the  original  population. 
141 


America  in  the  East 

Where,  however,  the  pure  Hawaiians  can 
live  by  themselves,  with  a  maximum  of  the 
blessings  and  a  minimum  of  the  bane  brought 
by  civilization,  they  increase  in  numbers,  as 
well  as  in  physical  strength  and  intellectual 
graces. 

Notwithstanding  the  great  missionary  suc- 
cesses, it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  Christ- 
ianity within  two  generations  can  or  does 
extinguish  the  paganism  of  centuries.  Not 
a  few  brutalizing  superstitions  still  remain  in 
the  island.  Nevertheless,  the  conversion  of 
the  "Sandwich  Islanders"  to  the  religion  of 
Jesus  forms  one  of  the  shining  episodes  in  the 
grand  story  of  missionary  triumph.  Not  only 
have  there  been  a  transformation  of  native 
character,  and  hundreds  of  earnest  and  conse- 
crated native  pastors  trained  and  set  to  work, 
but  Hawaii  has  been  a  centre  of  the  radiation 
of  Gospel  light  and  power  through  all  the 
South  Sea,  by  means  of  evangelists  and  teachers 
to  other  islands.  What  early  Christian  Ireland 
was  to  Europe,  Hawaii  has  been  to  Polynesia. 


142 


John  L.  Stevens,  U.  S.  Minister  to  Hawaii_,  1S92. 


CHAPTER  XX 

ORIENTALS    AND  OCCIDENTALS    IN    HAWAII 

OUR  new  fellow-citizens,  the  Portuguese 
in  Hawaii,  form  a  hopeful  element  in 
the  community.  They  are  industrious  and 
honest,  being  mostly  laborers,  but  excellent 
citizens.  They  are,  for  the  most  part,  the 
sons  and  grandsons  of  those  who  were  brought 
from  the  Azores  and  Madeiras  to  labor  on  the 
plantations.  Their  capacity  for  improvement 
is  shown  in  this,  that  as  soon  as  the  Chinese 
were  imported  in  the  summer  of  1865,  the 
Portuguese,  especially  those  born  on  the 
islands,  turned  their  hands  to  the  wprk  of 
skilled  mechanics.  Most  of  the  public  im- 
provements in  the  archipelago  have  been 
wrought  by  them.  They  co-operate  in  most 
of  the  social  and  political  measures  which  are 
inaugurated  by  the  intelligent  men  of  the  com- 
munity, and  are  heartily  in  sympathy  with  the 
United  States,  having  thus  far  used  their  rights 
of  suffrage  intelligently.  Their  spiritual  sus- 
143 


America  In  the  East 

tenance  is  derived  through  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic Church,  which  always  makes  for  law  and 
order. 

The  Chinese  began  to  come  in  1865,  having 
been  invited,  and  indeed  brought  over,  by  the 
Hawaiian  Bureau  of  Immigration.  As  it  is 
nearly  impossible  to  get  a  Chinese  woman 
across  the  "  black  waves,'*  these  immigrants 
were  all  males,  and  therefore  did  not  improve 
the  social  life  of  the  Hawaiians,  any  more  than 
the  white  sailors  from  Christendom.  But,  as 
in  all  the  Malay  and  Polynesian  world,  the 
son  of  a  Chinese  father  is  a  decided  improve- 
ment on  his  insular  mother's  stock,  usually 
resembling  his  paternal  rather  than  his 
maternal  ancestors. 

The  Chinese  takes  to  labor  naturally.  He 
knows  how  to  replenish  the  earth  and  subdue 
it.  He  has  the  hereditary  virtues  of  thrift, 
patience,  and  industry.  In  Hawaii,  he  has 
control  of  much  rich  land  once  held  by  natives. 
Now  we  see  the  rice-fields  and  taro-patches, 
truck-farms  and  poultry-yards,  everywhere 
worked  by  Chinese,  and  that  many  of  these 
farmers  and  merchants  from  the  Flower  Land 
have  become  rich.  Indeed,  it  is  almost  im- 
144 


Orientals  and  Occidentals 

possible  even  for  so-called  Christian  civiliza- 
tion to  stand  against  the  competition  of  the 
Chinaman.  Hence  the  old  story  is  told  again. 
The  invitation,  once  given  in  need,  is  with- 
drawn and  the  barrier  set  up.  Since  1886  no 
Chinaman  need  or  can  come  to  Hawaii. 

"  Everlasting  Great  Japan,"  which  in  the 
fifteenth,  sixteenth,  and  early  seventeenth 
centuries  sent  her  sons  as  pirates,  traders, 
travellers,  and  immigrants  all  over  eastern  Asia 
from  Saghalin  to  Java  and  from  Borneo  to 
India,  altered  her  poUcy  in  a  hurry  when 
to  the  Portuguese  v/as  added  the  Spaniard. 
From  1637  to  1868  she  fiercely  excluded  the 
foreigner,  and  rigidly  included  her  own  people. 
When,  by  the  co-operation  of  forces  within 
and  without,  Japan  became  the  Mikado's 
Empire  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name,  the  nev/ 
Japanese  of  the  Dispersion  began  to  number 
thousands.  Yet  those  in  Hawaii  were  not 
approved  or  recognized  by  the  Tokio  Govern- 
ment until  1884,  after  which  date  they  began 
to  emigrate  in  num,bers  that  frightened  both 
natives  and  white  men  in  Hawaii,  who, 
instead  of  the  quiet  rustics  and  polished  gentle- 
men whom  they  had  thus  far  seen,  beheld  an 

lo  145 


America  in  the  East 

obstinate,  ignorant,  and  altogether  unlovely- 
class  from  the  back-country  parts  and  worse 
areas  in  the  Japanese  cities.  Later  on,  there 
was  some  improvement  in  the  quality  of  these 
little  brown  men  —  so  distinctly  inferior  to 
the  Chinese  in  size,  but  so  much  more  self- 
assertive  and  quarrelsome.  When  it  was  found 
that  there  had  come  upon  Hawaiian  soil  an 
army  of  20,000  "  Japs,"  among  whom,  as  it 
seemed  impossible  to  doubt,  were  many  ex- 
soldiers,  there  was  genuine  alarm.  When, 
further,  the  Imperial  Government  took  inter- 
est in  their  presence,  and  sent  men-of-war  to 
the  island  to  look  after  the  sons  of  Nippon, 
there  was  consternation  among  the  Americans, 
who  were  dearly  hoping,  yet  with  fear,  to  see 
what  we  now  behold.  When,  further,  these 
annexationists  contrasted  the  splendid  modern 
steel  cruiser  "  Naniwa "  with  the  antiquated 
wooden  warships  of  the  United  States,  they 
feared  that,  between  the  increasing  emigration 
and  the  political  ambition  of  the  Japanese, 
Hawaii  was  certain  to  become  a  portion  of  Dai 
Nippon.  Indeed,  after  whipping  the  Chinese, 
and  ripping  open  the  colossus  of  China  for 
European  aggression,  the  avera.ge  Japanese 
146 


Orientals  and  Occidentals 

abroad  was  not  excessively  modest.  This  fear 
of  Japan  was  not  allayed  when  Hawaii  became 
a  republic.  It  seemed  imperative  that  wise 
regulative  measures  should  not  be  counter- 
acted by  Japanese  craft  and  unscrupulousness. 
The  annexationists  beat  the  big  drum  rather 
noisily,  and  strained  their  throats  unnecessarily 
in  clamoring  for  quick  union  with  the  United 
States,  lest  the  maw  of  the  Japanese  dragon 
should  engulf  the  tiny  republic. 

Nevertheless,  I  confess  to  have  had  more 
amusement  than  edification  while  reading,  in 
the  newspapers  of  this  decade,  about  the  Jap- 
anese bugaboo.  I  can  safely  affirm  that  there 
never  has  been  the  slightest  danger  of  Japan's 
seizing  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  or  any  sign  of 
the  Tokio  Government's  having  any  desire  to 
swamp  the  country  with  emigrants.  If  there 
is  one  thing  certain  in  the  history  of  the  past, 
in  the  conditions  of  the  present,  or  in  the 
possibilities  of  the  future,  it  is  that  Japan, 
while  strenuous  for  her  rights,  will  not  seek 
a  quarrel  with  the  United  States.  The  Jap- 
anese, as  individuals  and  as  a  nation,  have 
their  faults  and  weaknesses,  but  they  know 
real  friendship  —  yes,  even  when  the  manifes- 

147 


America  in  the  East 

tations  of  it  are  sometimes  odd ;  and  they  feel 
not  only  sure  but  certain  that  they  have  one 
good  friend  in  the  United  States.  Further- 
more, they  have  always  believed  that  Hawaii 
could  never  be  anything  else  than  a  part  of 
the  United  States. 

Supposing  that  of  the  one  hundred  thou- 
sand and  more  present  inhabitants  of  Hawaii, 
one-half  are  our  fellow-citizens,  what  is  our 
duty  toward  them  ?  What  prospect  have  we 
for  seeing  them  and  their  children  becoming 
as  good  American  citizens  as  are  the  average 
in  New  York  or  California,  in  Louisiana  or 
Arkansas  ?  Those  who  think  of  Americans 
as  only  "  pure-blooded  Anglo-Saxons  "  —  if 
there  ever  were  such  persons,  at  any  time 
since  De  Foe  wrote  his  "  True-Born  English- 
man "  —  may  look  with  fear  and  contempt 
upon  "  our  new  fellovz-citizens.''  But  those 
who,  through  the  perspective  of  history,  see 
that,  not  as  a  matter  of  opinion,  but  of  fact, 
we  are  a  very  mixed  people  —  not  having  even 
a  majority  of  English,  though  probably  a  ma- 
jority of  British,  descent — who  have  learned  by 
study  how  large  a  proportion  of  the  blood  of 
Continental  Europe  already  runs  in  the  veins 

148 


Orientals  and  Occidentals 

of  our  nation,  who  brings  home  to  his  mind 
clearly  how  many  millions  of  fellow- Americans 
there  are  who  are  descended  more  or  less  di- 
rectly from  Indian  or  African  ancestors,  will 
not  be  frightened  at  the  problem  of  Hawaii. 
We  not  only  need  but  we  ought  to  be  ashamed 
of  ourselves  as  Christians  if  we  have  not  the 
Caleb  spirit  to  say  of  this  new  promised  land 
that,  educationally  and  spiritually,  "we  are 
well  able  to  possess  it." 

The  man  of  faith  who  is  acquainted  with 
the  home  missionary  work  of  our  churches, 
who  knows  what  has  been  done  for  the  negro, 
the  Indian,  and  the  Chinese  within  our  bor- 
ders, who  has  mastered  the  literature  of  mis- 
sions, who  has  read,  marked,  and  inwardly 
digested  such  a  book  as  that  of  Dr.  James  S. 
Dennis  on  "  Christian  Missions  and  Social 
Progress,"  will  not  fear,  but  rather  rejoice 
than  cower  in  fear  before,  this  fresh  problem. 
This  new  part  of  America,  like  the  older  land, 
means  opportunity.  Had  I  not  myself  seen 
the  wonderful  works  of  God  and  of  the  con- 
secrated service  of  my  fellow-Americans  in 
Japan,  had  I  not  known  the  co-working  of 
the  heavenly  Father  and  of  his  children  in 

149 


America  in  the  East 

other  lands  of  the  East,  had  I  experience 
only  of  that  which  I  saw  and  heard  at  Min- 
neapohs  in  October,  1897,  at  the  semi-centen- 
nial of  the  American  Missionary  Association, 
I  should  still  believe,  as  Caleb  did  of  Canaan, 
that "  we  are  all  able  to  possess  it,"  and  ought 
to  welcome  gladly  the  task  of  entrance  into 
the  white  harvest-field  of  Hawaiian  humanity. 
What  God  and  American  Christians  in  co- 
operation have  done  in  raising  up  the  fierce 
Sioux  and  Chippewa,  and  the  slave  from  the 
indigo  swamp,  to  Christian  manhood,  can  be 
done  in  any  part  of  the  United  States,  whether 
continental  or  insular.  Personally,  I  do  not 
believe  better  Christians  are  made  than  the 
Chinese  and  Japanese  when  truly  turned  to 
God  in  Christ  Jesus.  Indeed,  it  may  possibly 
be  that  these  sons  of  that  continent,  from 
which  came  all  true  and  abiding  religions, 
have  something  to  teach  us.  What  I  believe 
of  the  Asians,  there  are  Christian  teachers  on 
the  active  field  who  believe  of  the  Hawaiians. 
Of  the  "  remnant "  we  can  speak  with  as 
much  confidence  and  warmth  as  did  the 
Hebrew  prophet  of  that  which  made  the  new 
State  of  Israel  after  Babylonian  captivity.  It 
150 


Orientals  and  Occidentals 

is  they  and  their  fathers  who  have  given 
Hawaii  her  Christianity,  her  splendid  civiliza- 
tion, and  a  future  of  hope  for  the  aboriginal 
and  the  newer  inhabitants.  Their  conduct 
during  the  trying  times  of  corrupt  royalty, 
under  the  disciphne  of  cold  blasts  from  Wash- 
ington, and  as  makers  of  the  republic,  is 
beyond  praise.  No  finer  specimens  of  the 
Americans  abroad,  now  become  Americans  at 
home,  have  been  known  in  our  history.  We 
need  not  fear  or  doubt  the  power  of  our 
people  to  plant  and  nourish  colonies,  and  to 
elevate  inferior  races,  while  we  have  the  inspir- 
ing example  of  the  Americans  in  Hawaii 
before  us. 

Having  glanced  at  the  manifold  activities  of 
the  versatile  Americans  in  Asia  during  the 
past  century,  I  propose  now  to  show  in  a  few 
rapid  sketches  what  has  been  accomplished  by 
the  navy  of  the  United  States.  It  will  be 
seen  that  in  all  the  years  before  the  pivotal 
date  of  May  i,  1898,  our  officers  and  sailors 
in  the  ships  of  wood  were  as  worthy  of  honor 
and  praise  as  those  in  the  modern  cruisers  of 
steel.  The  past  record  of  our  navy  in  the  Far 
East  augurs  hopefully  for  the  solution  of 
151 


America  in  the  East 

future  problems.  That  arm  of  the  national 
service  which  can  show  the  names  of  Glynn, 
Perry,  McDougal,  Pearson,  Foote,  Tattnall, 
Rodgers,  and  Dewey  on  its  record,  is  not 
likely  to  lack  men  of  heroism,  wisdom, 
patience,  and  perseverance  in  the  coming 
century. 


152 


CHAPTER   XXI 

OUR    FLAG    IN    THE    WATERS    OF    CHINA 
AND    JAPAN 

AT  the  date  of  the  expulsion  of  the 
Spaniard  and  the  Portuguese  from 
Japan,  a  new  nation  was  begun  by  the  Pilgrims 
at  the  edge  of  the  North  American  wilderness. 
Two  centuries  later,  in  1 837,  the  unarmed  ship 
"  Morrison,"  sent  by  an  American  firm  in  China 
to  take  back  Japanese  waifs  into  Yedo  Bay, 
was  fired  on  and  driven  away.  "Why,*' 
asked  the  owner,  "  is  the  sentence  of  expulsion 
passed  so  long  ago  upon  the  Spaniards  and 
Portuguese  entailed  upon  us  ?  "  It  is  credit- 
able to  the  Great  Pacific  Power,  as  President 
Arthur  named  the  United  States,  that  her  very 
first  ships  carried  the  olive-branch.  Beside 
the  apostles  of  gainful  trade,  our  country  sent 
missionaries,  physicians,  and  teachers,  planting 
churches,  hospitals,  schools,  and  colleges.  In 
the  empire  of  China,  first  peacefully  opened  to 
American  commerce  by  Shaw,  and  in  Japan 
153 


America  in  the  East 

and  Korea,  both  led  into  the  world's  brother- 
hood of  nations  by  Perry  and  Shufeldt,  blood 
has  been  spilled  by  our  people  only  in  self- 
defence  or  after  provocation. 

The  Dutch  and  British  East  India  Com- 
panies opened  the  eyes  of  Americans  to  the 
rich  harvest-fields  of  trade  whitening  in  the 
Far  East.  It  was  American  ginseng  that  first, 
through  the  Hollanders  in  the  Hudson 
Valley,  made  the  Chinese  practically  aware  of 
and  interested  in  "The  Country  of  the 
Flowery  Flag."  It  was  the  Chinese  leaf,  tea, 
shipped  from  Amoy  on  British  merchantmen, 
that  precipitated  the  Revolutionary  war,  bring- 
ing about  that  event  of  July  4,  1776,  which 
has  ever  since  required  an  endless  supply  of 
Chinese  fire-crackers  to  celebrate  it. 

No  sooner  was  peace  concluded  between 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  than  the 
ship  "  Empress,'*  loaded  with  ginseng,  and 
commanded  by  Captain  Green,  sailed  from  New 
York  on  Washington's  birthday,  February  22, 
1784,  for  Canton.  Major  Samuel  Shaw,  her 
supercargo  and  ex-artillery  officer  in  the  United 
States  army,  established  American  trade  in 
Canton.  In  the  ship  "  Massachusetts,"  he 
154 


China  and  Japan 

returned,  and  was  American  cousul  from  1790 
to  1794.  The  exchange  of  ginseng  and  tea, 
and  afterwards  of  cotton  and  crockery,  became 
lively  and  permanent.  Captain  Kennedy,  in 
1783  in  the  ship  "  Columbia,"  built  in 
Plymouth  County,  Massachusetts,  sailed  up 
the  great  river  of  Oregon  and  named  it  after 
his  ship,  thus  making  a  basis  for  the  Ameri- 
can claims,  and  opening  the  way  for  barter  of 
the  furs  of  Oregon  for  the  silks  of  China. 
Captain  Gray  carried  the  American  flag  round 
the  world  between  the  years  1787  and  1790. 
Soon  American  commerce  with  China  began  to 
attract  the  unwelcome  attentions  of  Chinese 
pirates. 

The  first  passage  at  arms  between  American 
citizens  and  Chinese  was  in  1 809,  when  Mr. 
J.  P.  Sturgis,  of  Boston,  arrived  in  the  ship 
"  Atahualpa,"  Captain  Bacon,  at  Macao.  The 
terrible  Chinese  pirate  Apootsae  was  then 
ravaging  the  coast,  capturing  imperial  forts, 
laying  whole  towns  under  contribution,  mas- 
sacring those  who  opposed  him,  and  terroriz- 
ing the  mandarins.  In  vain  were  rewards 
offered  for  his  head.  Having  watched  and 
seen  the  chief  officer  and  an  armed  boat's  crew 
155 


America  in  the  East 

leaving  the  "  Atahualpa*'  for  the  city  to  obtain 
a  river  pilot,  he  thought  the  capture  of  the  for- 
eign deviFs  ship  would  be  easy.  Ranging  his 
junks  under  color  of  moving  up  the  river,  and 
feigning  to  run  past  the  American  ship,  the 
pirates  suddenly  rounded,  expecting  to  leap 
on  board  and  kill  the  eighteen  or  twenty  men 
left  there.  Instead  of  quick  success,  the 
Chinaman  caught  a  Tartar.  Astounded  as 
the  Yankees  were,  their  cannon  were  fortu- 
nately loaded,  and  they  made  lively  use  of 
them,  and  with  Brown  Bess  muskets,  horse- 
pistols,  and  boarding-pikes,  defended  them- 
selves with  spirit.  The  Chinese  threw  on 
deck  plenty  of  those  home-made  hand-gren- 
ades which,  owing  to  the  quantity  of  sulphur 
in  the  powder,  were  unpoetically  termed 
"  stink-pots,"  but  they  killed  none  of  their 
foes.  Amid  the  shrieks  and  groans  of  their 
wounded,  a  hellish  din  with  gongs  and  drums 
was  kept  .up.  The  Yankees  fired  with  such 
effect  that  the  Chinese  were  beaten  off. 
Apootsae  called  away  his  men,  and  his  ships 
were  soon  lost  to  sight.  This  episode  put 
such  courage  into  the  cowardly  mandarins 
that,  by  means  of  bribery  and  treachery,  they 


China  and  Japan 

secured  the  cut-throat  Apootsae,  and  had  him 
put  to  death  by  the  slow  and  prolonged  pro- 
cess of  hacking,  called  "  the  thousand  cuts." 
From  this  time  forth  there  was  intense  respect 
for  Americans  at  Canton  and  Macao,  and 
business  increased  with  little  interruption. 

The  American  flag  was  seen  in  Japanese 
waters  as  early  as  1797,  at  a  time  when  the 
future  Commodore  M.  C.  Perry  and  his 
brother  Oliver,  boys  of  three  and  twelve  years 
old,  trained  by  their  Spartan  mother,  were 
learning  how  to  conquer  self  before  capturing 
a  squadron  and  opening  a  hermit  empire. 
Over-fat  Holland,  then  neither  brave  nor 
little,  but  distracted  and  bleating  like  a  fat 
sheep  before  Napoleon  the  wolf,  had  been  de- 
graded into  the  Batavian  Republic.  The 
Dutch  flag  was  wiped  oflF  the  sea,  for  British 
cruisers  were  at  the  ends  of  the  earth.  In 
order  to  keep  up  their  trade-monopoly  with 
Japan,  the  Dutch  of  Java  engaged  Captain 
Stewart,  on  the  ship  "  Eliza  "  of  New  York,  to 
go  to  a  place  of  which  —  except  in  Swift's 
"Gulliver's  Travels"  —  few  Americans  had 
ever  heard.  Thus  the  thirteen  stripes  and 
seventeen  stars  were  mirrored  on  the  waters  of 
157 

>  OF  THE  '^ 

UNIVERSITY 


America  in  the  East 

Nagasaki  Bay  when  President  Jefferson  was  in 
Japanese  eyes  the  "  King  of  America."  In 
1799  Captain  James  Devereaux,  in  the  Amer- 
ican ship  "  Frankhn,"  performed  the  same  task. 
When  the  nineteenth  century  opened,  Captain 
John  Derby,  from  Salem,  Massachusetts, 
under  charter  of  the  East  India  Company, 
attempted  to  open  trade  with  Japan,  but 
failed.  In  1803  Stewart,  still  flying  the 
American  flag,  came  again  to  this  loop-hole 
which  the  Japanese  kept  open  by  means  of 
the  Dutch.  Except  ginseng,  the  Japanese 
wanted  none  of  our  products. 

Japanese  art  pictures  in  symbol  the  primal 
introduction  of  civilization  into  their  "  Cliff 
Fortress  Country  "  by  means  of  a  whale,  and 
the  god  of  literature  has  a  brush-pen  in  one 
hand  and  a  roll  or  pad  of  manuscript  in  the 
other,  while  he  stands  in  festive  attitude  on 
the  back  of  a  huge  sea-monster.  In  reality, 
it  was  a  whale  that  introduced  the  Ameri- 
cans to  Japan,  and  ushered  in  her  present 
amazing  prosperity.  In  search  of  this  fur- 
nisher of  oil  and  bone,  American  ships  ijnoved 
out  beyond  Nantucket  southward,  around 
Cape  Horn,  and  up  the  Pacific.  Though 
158 


China  and  Japan 

the  blubber  industry  was  nearly  destroyed  by 
the  Revolutionary  war,  it  revived.  By  1812 
our  men  of  the  harpoon  were  so  numerous  in 
the  Pacific  Ocean  that  Commodore  David 
Porter,  in  the  "  Essex,"  with  David  Farragut 
among  his  midshipmen,  was  sent  out  to  pro- 
tect Yankee  whalers  from  British  depredation. 
Already  some  had  gone  far  north,  bringing 
back  stories  of  how  the  little  brown  men  of 
Japan  caught  whales  —  as  they  do  yet  —  in 
big  nets.  Commodore  Porter,  in  18 15,  urged 
upon  Secretary  James  Monroe  that  Japan  be 
opened  to  commerce,  and  plans  were  matured 
for  the  despatch  of  a  frigate  and  two  sloops 
of  war  ;  but  the  vessels  were  never  sent. 
Now  began  the  long  story  of  the  imprison- 
ment of  shipwrecked  American  sailors  on  the 
coasts  of  Tycoorland.  John  Quincy  Adams 
denied  the  right  of  Dai  Nippon  to  be  a  hermit 
nation,  but  his  was  a  voice  crying  in  the 
wilderness.  Neither  our  government  nor 
people  seemed  to  be  properly  interested  in 
foreign  commerce,  much  less  in  any  naval 
application  of  the  doctrine  of  "  manifest  des- 
tiny "  or  territorial  expansion. 


159 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE    ADVENT    OF    AMERICAN    POWER    IN 
THE    PACIFIC 

WHEN  Andrew  Jackson  became  Presi- 
dent, the  United  States  began  to 
formulate  something  like  a  foreign  policy. 
Commodore  David  Porter  made  treaties  with 
Turkey.  The  French  and  the  Neapolitans 
w^re  compelled  to  pay  their  debts.  One  of 
the  most  brilliant  of  American  naval  opera- 
tions in  the  Mediterranean  was  seen  when  six 
of  the  finest  floating  fortresses  in  the  world, 
under  "  Old  Glory,"  entered  successively  the 
Bay  of  Naples,  and  ranged  their  broadsides 
opposite  the  beautiful  city  of  King  Bomba. 
Changing  his  attitude  of  haughty  refusal  to 
pay,  he  handed  over  in  cash  what  he  owed  the 
United  States  for  his  father's  depredations. 

Even    Asia    felt    the    new   influence    from 

Washington.       Edmund   Roberts,  of  Ports- 

raouth.    New    Hampshire,  —  posthumously, 

and  perhaps  truthfully,  called  in  stained-glass 

i6o 


America  in  the  Pacific 

memorial  the  "  ambassador "  of  the  United 
States,  but  officially  President  Jackson's 
"agent,"  and  navally  rated  as  captain's  clerk, 
—  became  our  efficient  first  American  envoy 
in  the  Far  East.  On  the  sloop  of  war  "  Pea- 
cock," after  overcoming  great  obstacles,  he 
made  treaties  with  Muscat  and  Siam.  In 
Cochin  China,  he  failed,  where  success  was 
impossible.  In  the  expectation  of  reaching 
Japan,  he  died  June  12,  1836,  at  Macao. 
In  August  of  the  next  year  Commodore  Ken- 
nedy, in  the  United  States  sloop  "  Peacock," 
reached  those  islands,  one  of  which  Captain 
Reuben  Coffin,  of  Nantucket,  had  already 
named,  but  which  were  called  by  the  Japan- 
ese Bonin,  or  "  no  man's  land,"  for  they 
were  then  claimed  by  no  government.  Since 
1876  the  *Bonin  group  has  been  made  an  in- 
tegral part  of  the  Mikado's  Empire.  The 
"  Peacock  "  was  our  first  man-of-war  in  Japan- 
ese waters,  the  forerunner  of  Dewey  and  his 
steel  squadron. 

Americans  took  up  the  torch  dropped  by 

Roberts  to  bear  it  on  in  the  race.     Messrs. 

King  and  Co.,  of  Macao,  in  their  own  ship, 

appropriately  named  after  the  great  missionary 

II  161 


America  in  the  East 

"  Morrison/*  reached  Uraga,  in  Yedo  Bay,  July 
29,  1837.  Their  freight  consisted  of  ship- 
wrecked Japanese  and  presents  for  the  people. 
As  on  William  Penn*s  colonizing  ships,  there 
was  not  a  gun  or  cannon  aboard.  The  story 
of  their  repulse  is  soon  told.  Though  they 
explained  their  mission,  and  were  visited  by 
hundreds  of  people  who  saw  their  unarmed 
condition,  they  were  fired  on  before  casting 
anchor,  and  again  the  next  morning  from  a 
fresh  battery  of  cannon  built  overnight.  The 
same  experience  met  them  in  Satsuma,  farther 
south.  In  the  eyes  of  the  Japanese,  the 
Spaniard  and  Portuguese  had  tarred  all  aliens 
with  the  same  brush. 

By  the  time  of  "  Tippecanoe  and  Tyler 
too,'*  American  naval  operations  had  become 
so  far  organized  that  there  was  an  "  East  India 
squadron.**  The  United  States  ship  of  the  line 
"Columbus**  and  the  "Vincennes**  reached 
Yedo  Bay  in  1 846,  but  were  at  once  surrounded 
by  scores  of  armed  boats.  To  the  polite  letter 
of  President  Polk,  an  answer  of  impudent  de- 
fiance was  returned,  and  Commodore  Biddle 
was  insulted.  While  in  full  uniform,  stepping 
from  a  junk,  a  common  Japanese  sailor  gave 
162 


America  in  the  Pacific 

the  American  chief  a  push  which  landed  him 
unceremoniously  in  the  bottom  of  his  own 
boat.  Japanese  officers  promised  to  punish 
the  man,  but  nothing  was  done,  and  the  Amer- 
ican ships  went  away.  The  immediate  result 
was  that  the  American  shipwrecked  sailors — 
who  were  not  indeed  always  of  the  loveliest 
disposition  —  were  more  cruelly  treated  than 
ever.  One  of  them,  on  threatening  possible 
vengeance  from  American  men-of-war,  was 
sneeringly  told  that  his  government  could 
care  nothing  for  poor  seamen,  for  a  Japanese 
boatman  had  insulted  even  an  American  ad- 
miral, and  had  not  been  made  to  suffer  any 
punishment. 


163 


CHAPTER   XXIII 

GLYNN,    PERRY,    AND    HARRIS 

THE  episode  of  Biddle  and  the  boatman 
in  Yedo  Bay  made  our  naval  officers, 
and  one  in  particular,  resolve  on  a  different 
course  of  deportment,  Captain  Geisinger, 
formerly  of  the  "  Peacock,"  hearing  from  the 
Dutch  consul  at  Canton  of  eighteen  sailors 
imprisoned  at  Nagasaki,  ordered  Commander 
Glynn  in  the  United  States  brig  ''  Preble  "  to 
rescue  them.  At  this  time  the  seas  were  so 
little  known,  the  charts  so  imperfect,  and  the 
season  so  inclement,  that  naval  men  at  Hong- 
Kong  laughed  at  the  idea  of  the  little  fourteen- 
gun  brig  ever  arriving  at  her  destination.  At 
Napa,  in  the  Loo-Choo  Islands,  the  natives 
openly  scorned  the  notion  of  Glynn  being 
able  to  do  anything,  when,  in  the  "  Japanese 
victory  over  the  Americans,'*  —  referring  to 
the  episode  in  Yedo  Bay,  —  a  ship  of  the  line 
and  a  sloop  of  war  had  been  "  driven  away." 
164 


Glynn,  Perry,  and  Harris 

All  this  put  Glynn  on  his  mettle.  Reach- 
ing Nagasaki,  he  dashed  through  the  cordon  of 
boats  and  dropped  anchor  within  range  of  the 
city  suburbs.  The  boom  of  the  cannon  an- 
nouncing his  arrival  was  sweet  music  to  the 
American  sailors  in  prison.  Boarded  by  the 
chief  interpreter  with  attendants,  who  inquired 
his  business,  Glynn  was  ordered  to  leave  the 
waters  of  Japan  at  once.  The  American's 
immediate  reply  was  that  his  mission  was  to 
the  government.  Then,  rather  ostentatiously, 
he  gave  the  order  to  heave  anchor,  spread 
sail,  and  move  forward.  Visions  of  involun- 
tary hara-kiri  at  once  excited  the  Japanese  to 
voluble  protests.  Nevertheless,  Glynn  moved 
into  the  inner  harbor  and  anchored  within  two 
hundred  yards  of  the  batteries  on  either  side 
of  the  anchorage.  He  refused  to  see  any- 
body but  the  governor,  sending  word  that  he 
would  not  leave  until  he  had  obtained  the 
American  seamen  on  deck.  He  demanded 
their  immediate  release.  Furthermore,  he 
made  it  plain  that  if  the  cordon  of  boats  was 
not  quickly  broken  up,  he  would  blow  them 
out  of  the  water. 

During  the  nine  days  the  "  Preble "  re- 
165 


America  in  the  East 

mained,  a  great  army  of  soldiers  gathered. 
Extra  guns  to  the  number  of  sixty  were 
mounted,  any  one  of  which,  rightly  trained, 
might  have  sunk  the  "  Preble."  Yet,  in  spite 
of  the  glittering  arms,  the  bright  and  varie- 
gated colors  of  the  feudal  banners,  and  the 
military  and  naval  flags,  the  American  com- 
mander, while  granting  a  little  longer  time, 
refused  to  modify  his  request.  Half  his  crew 
were  on  deck  all  the  time,  and  every  precau- 
tion against  surprise  and  preparation  for  at- 
tack was  made.  Glynn  was  ably  seconded  by 
Lieutenant  Silas  Bent  —  afterwards  with  Perry, 
and  the  scientific  discoverer  of  the  Kuro 
Shiwo,  or  Pacific  Gulf  Stream. 

A  new  governor  came  into  ofiice.  Visiting 
Glynn  in  the  cabin,  he  asked  for  three  days 
more  time.  Making  an  end  to  suavity  of 
manner,  Glynn  dashed  his  fist  upon  the  table 
and  exclaimed,  "  Not  another  hour  !  "  Nor 
should  the  governor  nor  any  of  the  party 
leave  the  ship  till  he  got  an  answer.  Instantly 
the  excited  Japanese  stood  up,  the  interpreter 
telling  Commander  Glynn  that  this  was  a 
high  officer,  and  must  not  be  so  spoken  to. 
"  So  am  I,"  retorted  Glynn ;  "  I  represent 
1 66 


Glynn,  Perry,  and  Harris 

the  government  of  the  United  States."  A 
parley  was  then  asked  for  by  the  Japanese. 
With  watch  in  hand,  Glynn  waited  during  the 
promised  fifteen  minutes.  When  the  Japan- 
ese returned  to  the  cabin,  the  governor  re- 
marked to  Glynn  that  he  could  have  the  men 
on  the  following  day. 

Then  "  grim-visaged  war  smoothed  his 
wrinkled  front."  With  the  frankest  cordial- 
ity Glynn  ordered  refreshments,  extended 
every  courtesy,  and  showed  the  officers  the 
drill,  discipline,  manual  of  arms,  and  general 
quarters.  The  next  day  the  imprisoned 
Americans  were  brought  on  board,  with  every 
particle  of  property  that  belonged  to  them  or 
their  owners.  Within  fifty-nine  days  from 
leaving,  Glynn  had  returned  to  Hong-Kong. 

Among  the  captives  released  was  Ronald 
MacDonald,  born  in  Astoria,  Oregon,  about 
1825.  He  had  reached  Japan  in  the  whaling- 
ship  "  Plymouth,"  and  had  been  voluntarily 
put  ashore  for  curiosity's  sake,  but  was  involun- 
tarily made  a  prisoner.  This  bright  youth 
was  the  first  teacher  of  the  English  language 
in  Japan,  —  the  forerunner  of  that  modern 
education  by  American  teachers  which  has  so 
.167 


America  in  the  East 

transformed  an  Oriental  people.  He  was  a 
bearer  of  the  Pilgrim's  creed  to  a  nation  which 
now  rejoices  in  a  written  constitution  and  is 
tending  to  democracy ;  for,  when  asked  by 
the  Japanese  officer  to  state  the  source  of  all 
power  in  the  United  States,  and  proceed 
from  the  highest  to  the  lowest  in  authority, 
he  answered,  first  of  all,  "  the  people,"  —  a 
phrase  inexplicable  to  the  Japanese  of  that 
day.  Among  his  pupils  was  Moriyama,  who 
served  as  interpreter  in  the  Perry  negotia- 
tions. 

Commander  Glynn  put  into  the  hand  of 
Perry  the  key  which  that  gallant  officer  used 
with  such  success  in  making  the  long-closed 
doors  of  feudal  Japan  open  to  commerce  and 
civilization.  By  the  blending  of  scrupulous 
politeness,  consummate  attention  to  the  details 
of  etiquette,  and,  last  but  not  least,  the  dis- 
play of  abundant  and  most  efficient  force. 
Perry  was  able  to  win  a  "  brain  victory," 
without  firing  a  hostile  shot  or  shedding  a 
drop  of  blood.  Yet  Commander  Glynn  had 
paved  the  way  for  his  success. 

When  Perry's  peaceful  armada  had  sailed 
away,  Japanese  officialdom  hoped  it  had  got 
i68 


Glynn,  Perry,  and  Harris 

rid  of  the  "  hairy  barbarians"  for  a  long  inter- 
val. What  was  the  amazement  of  the  Shi- 
moda  officers  on  August  21,  1856,  to  behold 
the  United  States  steamship  "  San  Jacinto," 
Commodore  Armstrong,  with  Townsend 
Harris,  consul-general,  on  board !  A  resi- 
dence was  asked  for,  and  the  common  courte- 
sies proper  in  opening  relations  of  official 
amity  were  demanded  and  obtained.  Amid 
the  strains  of  "Hail,  Columbia,"  Harris 
landed.  On  September  4  our  sailors  formed 
a  ring  around  the  flag-staff  and  cheered  "  the 
first  consular  flag  "  in  the  empire.  At  5  p.  m. 
the  "  San  Jacinto  "  left  for  China. 

Meanwhile,  without  a  ship  or  a  sailor, 
practically  deserted  by  his  government  for 
eighteen  months,  except  a  brief  visit  from 
Captain  Foote  in  the  United  States  ship 
"  Portsmouth,"  Townsend  Harris  won  every 
point,  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  diplomacy 
of  twenty  nations.  Refusing  to  deliver  Presi- 
dent Pierce's  letter  to  any  one  but  "  the  Em- 
peror," he.  entered  Yedo,  the  long-forbidden 
city,  on  November  30,  1857,  refusing  on  the 
way  to  undergo  any  of  the  humiliations  com- 
mon to  the  Tycoon's  vassals.  His  guard,  at- 
169 


America  in  the  East 

tendants,  and  baggage-horses  were  decorated 
with'  the  American  arms  and  colors.  With 
only  his  Dutch  secretary,  Mr.  Heusken,  he 
secured  audience  of  the  Shogun,  standing. 
He  continued  during  many  weary  months  the 
instruction  of  these  political  hermits  in  modern 
international  etiquette,  in  view  of  a  desired 
treaty  of  commerce  and  foreign  residence. 
While  the  American  ships  were  in  China,  the 
pot  of  Japanese  politics  was  boiling  over  in 
murders  and  assassinations.  The  counter- 
play  of  forces  was  between  Kioto,  the  seat  of 
the  Mikado's  authority,  and  Yedo,  the  place 
of  long  usurpation  and  of  the  sham  emperor. 
Signature  to  the  treaty  being  delayed,  Harris 
threatened  to  go  to  Kioto. 


170 


CHAPTER   XXIV 

THE  GALLANT  ACTIONS  OF  FOOTE  AND 
TATTNALL  IN  CHINA 

THE  names  of  Foote  and  Tattnall  take 
us  across  the  Yellow  Sea.  The  fornier 
recalls  the  only  passage  at  arms  between  the 
two  forces  of  the  governments  of  China  and 
the  United  States.  The  latter  revived  a 
famous  saying  of  Walter  Scott,  "blood  is 
thicker  than  water,'*  making  it  mean  forever, 
to  speakers  of  the  English  tongue,  that  Briton 
and  American  are  one  in  heart  and  aims,  as  in 
their  best  inheritances. 

While  Governor  John  Bowring,  Admiral 
Seymour,  and  Consul  (afterwards  Sir)  Harry 
Parkes  were  having  their  quarrel  with  the 
Chinese  commissioner  Yeh,  American  steamers 
were  twice  fired  on  when  passing  the  barrier 
forts  near  Canton.  It  seemed  high  time 
to  teach  the  Chinese  that  all  foreigners 
were  not  opium-smugglers,  and  that  peaceful 
neutrals  had  some  rights  which  ignorant  man- 
171 


America  in  the  East 

darins  were  bound  to  respect.  Commodore 
Armstrong  ordered  Captain  (afterwards  Rear- 
Admiral)  Foote,  of  the  "  Portsmouth,"  to 
bombard,  capture,  and  destroy  the  forts. 

The  steamer  "San  Jacinto  "  drew  too  much 
water  to  get  near  enough  to  use  her  guns,  but 
the  little  American  steamer  "  Williamette " 
towed  the  sailing-ship  "  Portsmouth "  to 
within  five  hundred  yards  of  the  largest  and 
lowest  fort,  which  was  built  of  great  blocks  of 
granite  and  mounted  heavy  cannon.  The 
"  Levant,"  towed  by  an  egg-shell  steam-launch, 
the  "  Kum  Fa,"  struck  on  a  rock.  So  the 
"  Portsmouth  "  on  the  first  day  had  to  fight 
alone. 

The  Chinese  began  the  war.  For  one  mo- 
ment that  day  the  long  granite  walls  and 
darkened  embrasures  of  the  fort  seemed  in 
harmony  with  the  sleepy  repose  of  the  beau- 
tiful soft  afternoon,  but  before  anchor  was 
dropped,  grape  and  round  shot  flew  around 
and  over  the  ship.  Loud  and  clear  were 
Foote's  orders  as,  without  steam  and  without 
wind,  in  a  narrow  and  unknown  channel,  and 
with  only  the  precarious  expedient  of  a  spring 
cable,  the  "  Portsmouth "  got  into  position. 
172 


^ 


Foote  and  Tattnall  in  China 

To  the  few  non-combatants  on  the  ship, — 
purser,  chaplain,  surgeon,  etc.,  —  the  time 
seemed  long  before  the  eight-inch  ship's  guns 
began  to  roar.  Then  her  timbers  quivered 
with  the  recoil  of  eight  starboard  broadside 
guns,  and  the  cheers  of  our  men  made  inspir- 
ing and  consoling  music.  The  shells  from 
the  "  Portsmouth's  "  columbiads  were  hurled 
with  awful  effect,  and  the  splendid  marksman- 
ship quickly  told  inside  the  fort.  Though 
the  Chinese  stood  to  their  guns  manfully,  they 
had  no  explosive  shells,  but  only  grape  and 
round  shot.  These  lashed  the  water  into 
white  foam  or  flew  over  the  ship.  The 
"Portsmouth,"  caught  in  the  current,  was 
swung  round  with  her  stern  toward  the  fort, 
which  exposed  her  to  a  raking  fire.  A  thirty- 
two-pound  shot  came  into  the  cabin,  carrying 
off  the  right  arm  and  crushing  the  hip  of  a 
marine.  Captain  Foote  at  once  ran  out  a  gun 
from  the  stern  port  and  continued  the  fight. 
When  dusk  fell,  the  fort  was  nearly  silent. 

During  several  days,  filled  up  in  the  inter- 
val with  diplomacy,  the  Americans  prepared 
for  a  land  attack.     On  the  2ist  the  "  Levant," 
towed  by  the  "  Kum  Fa,"  silenced  one  fort 
173 


America  in  the  East 

on  the  left  after  an  hour's  cannonade.  Then 
four  hundred  of  our  marines  and  sailors,  in 
their  boats,  towed  by  the  "  Kum  Fa,"  moved 
landward  for  a  charge  over  muddy  fields  to 
take  the  forts.  The  launch  of  the  "Sari 
Jacinto "  was  struck  by  a  cannon  ball  and 
three  men  killed.  Once  on  the  semi-solid 
land,  and  in  the  face  of  a  hot  fire  of  grape, 
round  shot,  jingal,  and  rockets,  our  men 
rushed  forward.  The  Chinese  fired  so  rapidly 
that  it  is  wonderful  that  our  men  were  not  all 
swept  away ;  but,  as  a  rule,  the  jingal  and 
rocket  men  fired  too  high.  As  soon  as  our 
men  entered  the  forts,  they  broke  and  fled. 
Our  total  loss  was  seven  killed  and  twenty- 
two  wounded,  all,  in  the  final  attack,  belong- 
ing to  the  "  San  Jacinto."  Under  the  ship's 
artillery  fire,  and  during  the  fighting  in  the 
fort,  at  least  three  hundred  Chinese  lives  were 
lost.  A  rocket,  with  a  spear-pointed  head  and 
a  feathered  bamboo  shaft  six  or  eight  feet  long, 
bounced  over  the  rice-fields  and  struck  one  of 
our  marines,  entering  the  leg  along  with  its 
dirt  and  straw,  and  causing  his  death. 

One   hundred   and  seventy-six  guns  were 
found  in  the  fort,  one  of  which  was  a  monster 
174 


Foote  and  Tattnall  in  China 

brass  piece  of  eight  inches  bore,  weighing  fully 
fifteen  tons.  It  was  over  twenty-two  feet  long, 
and  nearly  three  feet  across  at  its  greatest 
diameter.  These  four  barrier  forts  were  cap- 
tured between  November  20  and  22.  Al- 
though this  gallant  exploit  was  highly  com- 
mended by  the  British  officers,  it  attracted 
almost  no  attention  in  the  United  States. 
Nevertheless,  it  greatly  cleared  the  situation, 
the  Chinese  learning  to  distinguish  Americans 
and  the  American  flag  as  they  had  not  done 
before.  At  one  of  our  navy-yards  a  monu- 
ment recalls  the  episode  and  names  of  our 
gallant  slain. 

A  few  months  later  Commodore  Tattnall 
appeared  in  Chinese  waters.  It  was  Tattnall 
who,  in  1847,  ^^  Vera  Cruz,  wanted  to  pro- 
long his  half-hour's  cannonade  of  a  fortress 
built  of  heavy  masonry,  with  little  steamers 
mounting  one  gun  each.  It  was  he  who  said, 
"  War  shortens  life,  but  broadens  it.*'  Now, 
in  i860,  he  was  conveying  Mr.  Ward,  the 
United  States  minister,  on  the  chartered 
steamer  "  Toeywan,"  into  the  Pei-ho  River. 
On  the  23d  of  June  the  British  and  French 
allied  gunboats,  having  blown  up  one  boom, 
17s 


America  in  the  East 

attacked  the  forts,  but  being  unable  to  force 
the  second,  were  caught  in  a  trap  under  short 
range  of  the  Chinese  guns,  and  were  terribly 
defeated.  Many  ships  were  sunk  or  silenced. 
Eighty-five  men  were  killed,  and  three  hun- 
dred and  forty-five  were  wounded. 

Tattnall,  in  the  American  steamer  outside 
of  the  bar,  was  a  spectator.  He  bore  the 
sight  until  things  were  at  their  worst.  The 
flagship  "  Plover  "  had  parted  her  cable,  and 
drifted  a  helpless  wreck  until  lashed  to  the 
"  Cormorant."  With  the  admiral  wounded, 
and  all  her  men  killed  or  disabled,  only  the 
one  bow  gun  was  still  gallantly  served  by  a 
weary  squad.  Then  the  American  commo- 
dore ordered  his  cutter,  and  in  the  thick  of 
the  fight  passed  through  the  fleet  and  the 
hell  of  fire  to  visit  and  cheer  Admiral  Hope. 
A  round  .shot  from  the  Chinese  fort  killed 
Tattnall's  cockswain  and  shattered  the  stern 
of  his  boat.  This  raised  the  fighting  blood 
of  both  tars  and  chief  to  the  hottest.  To  the 
British  oflicer's  query  of  surprise  at  this  act 
of  a  neutral,  Tattnall  explained  that  blood 
was  thicker  than  water,  and  that  he  would 
gladly  aid  their  wounded.  Meanwhile  the 
176 


Foote  and  Tattnall  in  China 

American  sailors,  moving  up  to  the  bow, 
leaped  on  board  the  "  Plover/'  and  actually- 
relieved  their  exhausted  British  sailor-mates, 
serving  the  gun  during  a  round  or  two  until 
Tattnall  ordered  them  off,  even  while  ap- 
proval twinkled  in  his  eyes.  His  excuse  for 
towing  British  marines  into  action,  for  assist- 
ing in  an  assault  upon  a  Chinese  fort,  and  for 
other  technical  violations  of  international  law 
was,  in  a  phrase,  a  sentiment,  but  one  destined 
to  strengthen  and  deepen  as  the  years  flow  on. 
On  the  other  hand,  with  equal  humanity, 
Tattnall  offered  the  services  of  his  surgeons 
to  aid  the  wounded  Chinese ;  but  neither  the 
Chinese  government,  nor  race,  nor  nation  — 
if  there  be  such  a  thing  as  the  last,  which  we 
doubt  —  has  ever  been  particularly  interested 
in  saving  lives  endangered  in  war.  Tattnall's 
offer  was  declined.  The  Pei-ho  forts  were 
captured.  Our  minister,  J.  E.  Ward,  reached 
Peking,  refused  to  make  the  ko-tow,  or 
nine  prostrations,  but  ratified  the  treaty  and 
returned. 


12 


177 


CHAPTER  XXV 


AT 
SHIMONOSEKI 


THE  American  men-of-war"  Mississippi** 
and  "  Powhatan  "  were  released  from 
China,  and  in  the  nick  of  time  reached  Japan, 
then  politically  like  a  volcano  just  ready  to 
blow  off  its  rock  cap.  Townsend  Harris  had, 
on  February  17,  1858,  secured  the  written 
promise  of  the  Yedo  government  to  sign  the 
treaty,  and  on  the  27th  of  July  the  American 
envoy  was  at  Yokohama  with  Tattnall  on  the 
"  Powhatan,"  delivering  his  letter,  urging  the 
Premier  li's  signature  "  without  the  loss  of  a 
single  day." 

Yet,  so  far,  the  anti-Tycoon  party  at  Kioto 
had  withheld  the  Mikado's  signature.  The 
country  seemed  ready  either  for  intestine  war, 
or  conquest  by  the  "  hairy  alien."  Should 
Japan  become  as  India  or  China  ?  The 
regent-premier  li  answered  no.  He  signed 
the  Harris  treaty  July  29,  and  opened  Japan 
'178 


a  Wyoming"  at  Shimonoseki 

first  to  the  United  States,  and  thus  to  twenty 
nations.  For  this  act  he  was  assassinated, 
March  23,  i860,  while  the  Japanese  embassy 
sent  by  him  was  in  America.  In  our  days 
the  critical  scholarship  of  Shimada  Saburo  has 
set  li's  long-clouded  character  into  the  sun- 
light of  honor.  The  hermit  days  of  the 
agitated  Japan  of  1853-68  are  forgotten 
in  the  wealth,  power,  and  splendor  of  the 
industrial  and  naval  empire  of  to-day. 

Nevertheless,  the  olive-branch  from  Amer-. 
ica  meant  civil  war  in  Japan.  "  The  steel 
parted  from  the  wood."  Swords  flashed  from 
the  red  scabbards  and  from  the  white.  Sat- 
suma,  of  the  scarlet  sheath,  typified  the 
Mikado-reverencing  and  progressive  South. 
Aidzu,  of  the  virgin  white  wood  covering  the 
steel  blade,  stood  for  the  loyal  and  conserva- 
tive North.  Choshiu,  in  the  West,  however, 
held  the  Strait  of  Shimonoseki,  the  great  high- 
way of  foreign  commerce.  "In  obedience 
to  the  [imperial]  order,"  was  inscribed  on  the 
flag  which  the  clansmen  flung  to  the  wind 
from  bluffs  which  they  lined  with  batteries  of 
heavy  guns.  They  staked  out  the  channel, 
so  as  to  hit  exactly  the  ships  of  the  "  barba- 
179 


America  in  the  East 

rians,"    who    had    defiled    the    Land    of  the 
Gods. 

On  June  25,  1863,  that  eventful  day  fixed 
for  the  "  the  expulsion  of  the  barbarians  from 
the  God-country/'  the  American  merchant- 
steamer  "Pembroke,"  with  a  pilot  furnished  by 
the  Yedo  government,  and  with  the  American 
flag  apeak,  was  on  her  way  northward  through 
the  strait.  She  was  fired  upon  by  the  Choshiu 
clansmen  in  the  batteries  and  on  their  armed 
brig,  formerly  the  "  Lanrick,"  but  was  unhurt. 
The  peace  of  nearly  250  years  in  Japan  was 
broken.  On  July  8  the  French  despatch- 
vessel  "  Kien  Chang'*  was  hit  in  seven  places, 
her  boat's  crew  nearly  all  killed  by  a  shot,  and 
the  vessel  saved  from  sinking  only  by  lively 
use  of  the  pumps.  On  July  11  the  Dutch 
frigate  "  Medusa  "  was  hit  thirty-one  times, 
seven  shots  piercing  her  hull,  and  three  eight- 
inch  shells  bursting  on  board,  four  men  being 
killed,  and  five  wounded.  On  July  20  the 
French  gunboat  "  Tancrede,"  though  steam- 
ing swiftly  through  the  channel,  was  struck 
three  times  with  round  shot.  Not  long  after 
a  steamer  belonging  to  Satsuma,  but  mistaken 
,for  an  alien  vessel,  was  set  on  fire  by  shells 

180 


<^  Wyoming"  at  Shimonosfeki 

and  sunk,  twenty-six  Japanese  losing  their 
lives,  their  bodies  floating  past  Yoshibe 
Rock.  The  Choshiu  artillerists  were  in  high 
feather  at  their  splendid  successes.  With  their 
armed  brig,  their  bark  (formerly  the  "  Daniel 
Webster"),  and  the  big  steamer  "  Lance- 
field"  converted  into  a  man-of-war,  the 
Japanese  believed  that  they  could  whip  any- 
thing afloat  which  the  foreigners  might  bring. 
The  Confederate  privateer  "  Shenandoah  "  had 
annihilated  our  whaling  fleet  in  the  North 
Pacific,  and  our  commerce  having  been  swept 
from  the  seas  by  the  "  Alabama,"  Americans  liv- 
ing in  Japan  felt  like  people  without  a  country. 
Captain  David  McDougal  was  then  in 
search  of  the  "  Alabama."  His  ship,  the 
sloop  of  war  "  Wyoming,"  mounted  six  guns, 
two  of  them  being  eleven-inch  Dahlgrens. 
He  heard  the  news  of  the  "  Pembroke,"  from 
Minister  Robert  Pruyn  at  Yokohama.  He 
determined  to  cheer  up  his  countrymen. 
Though  without  charts  of  the  strait,  or  map 
of  the  batteries,  McDougal  ordered  coal  and 
stores  on  board  with  all  despatch.  He 
learned  the  exact  draught  of  the  Japanese 
steamer  "  Lancefield,"  and  was  delighted  to 
i8i 


America  in  the  Easf 

find  it  greater  than  the  "  Wyoming  s."  .  On 
July  1 6,  under  a  cloudless  sky,  without  a 
breath  of  wind,  and  the  sea  as  smooth  as  a 
tank  of  oil,  the  "  Wyoming,"  with  her  ports 
covered  with  tarpaulin,  so  as  to  look  like  a 
merchantman,  arrived  in  the  strait.  The 
lieutenant  in  the  forecastle  called  out  that  he 
sighted  two  square-rigged  vessels  and  a 
steamer  at  anchor  close  in  to  the  town. 
Most  of  the  "  Wyoming's "  men  and  her 
Japanese  pilot  had  never  been  under  fire. 
When,  therefore,  McDougal  called  out,  "  All 
right ;  we  will  steer  right  in  between  them 
and  take  the  steamer,"  not  a  few  aboard 
turned  pale  at  the  thought  of  their  captain's 
thus  "  running  amuck."  Moreover,  McDou- 
gal, noticing  the  stakes  that  marked  the 
channel,  and  suspecting  that  the  Choshiu 
guns  were  all  trained  on  it,  ordered  the  man 
at  the  wheel  to  run  the  ship  inside,  between 
the  stake-line  and  the  northern  shore.  The 
Japanese  pilot  seemed  paralyzed  with  terror 
at  the  ship's  running  so  close  under  the  bat- 
teries. Yet  McDougal  took  his  risks,  with 
cool  knowledge  of  the  situation  and  the 
depths  of  water,  and  without  foolhardiness. 
182 


p'<|--<fti  K^^i.  WW'-^'"' 


'aC%%=*»--:«^S^^S**KEf3^ 


roll)  Harper  »  Ala 


'  (  up\  rifilit,  isys,  by  Harper  in  BroliiBrs. 

The  Double-endkr  "Monocacy." 


ii 


Prpm  Harper'8  Magazine.  Copyright,  1898,  by  Harper  &  brothers.  V 

McDouGAL's  Ship,  the  "  WyomincT'' 


u Wyoming"  at  Shimonoseki 

Even  before  the  ship  was  thus  steered,  the 
eight-inch  guns  on  the  bluffs  opened  fire. 
The  American  flag  was  hoisted  at  10.30  a.m., 
and  the  artillery  of  the  "  Wyoming "  began 
to  play.  McDougaFs  wisdom  was  quickly 
justified.  Great  red  dragon-like  tongues  of 
flame  and  white  clouds  of  smoke  revealed 
fresh  batteries  on  the  hills  and  behind  the 
town.  Shot  and  shell  screeched  through  the 
air,  but  they  flew  ten  or  fifteen  feet  over 
the  heads  of  the  "Wyoming's'*  men,  for  the 
guns  on  shore  had  all  been  pointed  upon  the 
channel.  There  were  six  finished  batteries, 
mounting  in  all  thirty  guns.  The  three 
Japanese  men-of-war  carried  eighteen  pieces, 
making  forty-eight  cannon  opposed  to  the 
"  Wyoming's "  six.  The  first  Americans 
killed  were  two  sailors  near  the  anchor,  and 
then  a  marine  named  Furlong,  from  Maine. 
Except  Furlong,  all  the  casualties  were  in 
the  forward  division. 

By  10.50  A.  M.  the  Yankee  ship,  now  in 
front  of  the  town,  dashed  directly  between 
the  steamer  and  the  two  brigs.  The  Japan- 
ese gunners  on  the  "  Lanrick,"  who  were  so 
near  that  their  faces  could  be  seen,  fired  no 
^^3 


America  in  the  East 

fewer  than  three  broadsides  from  their  bronze 
twenty-four  pounders,  while  the  muzzles  of 
the  "  Wyoming's ''  four  thirty-two  pounders 
nearly  touched  theirs.  The  "  Lancefield/* 
having  her  heavier  guns  pointed  up  the  chan- 
nel, was  not  able  to  make  use  of  them,  but 
fired  swivels  and  muskets.  The  "  Wyom- 
ing" rounded  the  bow  of  the  steamer,  and 
when  out  into  the  clear  water  again  became 
the  target  of  the  batteries  behind  the  town 
and  of  one  brig,  the  other  vessel  showing 
signs  of  sinking. 

Unfortunately,  the  "  Wyoming  "  grounded. 
Seeing  this,  the  heavily  manned  Japanese 
steamer  began  to  move,  either  to  escape  into 
the  inner  harbor,  or  to  ram  the  "Wyoming" 
and  board  her  while  stuck  in  the  mud.  For- 
tunately, the  Yankee's  propeller  worked  the 
ship  off.  Then,  neglecting  the  sinking  brig, 
the  "  Wyoming  "  manoeuvred,  in  the  terribly 
swift  stream,  until  the  pivot-guns  had  the 
range  of  their  splendid  target.  Then  both 
Dahlgrens  spoke.  Their  shots  so  demoral- 
ized the  company  on  board  the  "  Lancefield  " 
that  the  dignitaries  from  under  the  magnifi- 
cent purple  canopy  got  off  in  sculling-boats 
184 


^^ Wyoming"  at  Shimonoseki 

and  were  rowed  away,  while  the  sailors  leaped 
overboard  by  the  score,  dotting  the  water 
with  topknots.  Again  McDougal  ordered 
the  gunners  of  the  eleven-inch  Dahlgrens  to 
fire.  At  first  they  seemed  to  pay  no  attention, 
and  the  order  was  given  three  or  four  times. 
The  gun-captain  of  the  forward  pivot  was 
only  waiting  to  get  the  exact  range.  The 
big  shell  struck  the  "  Lancefield "  at  the 
water-line,  passed  through  the  boiler,  tore 
out  her  sides,  and  burst  far  away  in  the  town 
beyond.  The  frightful  explosion,  casting  out 
steam,  smoke,  ashes,  iron,  timber,  and  human 
beings,  was  succeeded  by  a  gurgling  swell, 
under  which  the  steamer  disappeared  from 
sight.  On  her  way  back,  the  "Wyoming" 
dropped  shells  with  marvellous  accuracy  into 
the  batteries,  one  of  which  was  wholly 
destroyed. 

At  I2.20  P.M.  firing  ceased.  Fifty-five  shot 
and  shell  had  been  fired  within  a  space  of 
one  hour  and  ten  minutes.  Counting  time 
lost  when  aground,  this  meant  more  than  a 
gun  per  minute.  The  "Wyoming"  was 
hulled  ten  times,  her  funnel  had  six  holes 
in  it,  two  masts  were  injured,  and  the  upper 
185 


America  in  the  East 

rigging  badly  cut.  The  Choshiu  clansmen 
fired  chain-shot,  grape,  shell,  and  round  shot 
from  guns  mounted  on  carriages  of  improved 
foreign  pattern,  able  to  sweep  a  wide  arc  and 
to  change  their  elevation  quickly.  Their  one 
hundred  and  thirty  rounds  killed  five  and 
wounded  seven  of  our  men.  The  loss  of 
the  Japanese,  beside  one  battery  ruined  and 
two  ships  sunk,  was  probably  over  one 
hundred. 

After  studying  the  original  papers,  and 
questioning  numerous  eye-witnesses,  both 
Japanese  and  American,  it  is  hard  for  the 
writer  to  qualify  his  matured  judgment  that 
in  the  annals  of  the  American  navy  no  achieve- 
ment of  a  single  commander  in  a  single  ship 
surpasses  that  of  David  McDougal  in  the 
"  Wyoming "  at  Shimonoseki.  McDougal 
set  the  mark  for  Commodore  Dewey.  The 
Manila  victory  was  on  a  larger  scale.  It 
cannot  have  been  morally  greater. 

Four  days  after  McDougaFs  exploit,  the 
French  thirty-five-gun  frigate  and  gunboat 
"  Tancrede,"  with  a  land  force  of  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  men,  with  maps  made  by  the 
Dutch  captain,  shelled  the  forts,  took  one 
i86 


"Wyoming"  at  Shimonoseki 

five-gun  battery  of  twenty-four  pounders,  and 
came  away.  Nevertheless,  Choshiu  became  the 
centre  of  opposition  to  the  Shogun's  govern- 
ment at  Yedo.  The  clansmen,  re-enforced 
by  ronins,  or  free  lances,  from  all  parts  of 
the  empire,  repaired  their  losses,  built  new 
batteries,  mounted  heavier  guns,  and  suc- 
ceeded for  fifteen  months  in  closing  the  strait 
against  foreign  commerce.  The  Tycoon  be- 
ing helpless,  it  became  necessary  for  the  treaty 
powers  then  represented  in  Japan  to  force  the 
passage  and  destroy  the  forts. 


187 


CHAPTER   XXVI 

OUR    LITTLE    WAR    WITH    ONE    GUN 

IN  the  allied  fleet  assembled  to  enforce  the 
treaties  and  chastise  the  rebellious  vas- 
sal, out  of  a  total  of  17  ships,  mounting  208 
guns,  with  7590  men,  the  British  had  nine 
men-of-war.  The  heaviest  were  equipped 
with  splendid  new  breech-loading  Armstrong 
rifled  cannon,  of  which  the  English  oflicers 
were  exceedingly  proud,  not  sparing  their 
ridicule  of  our  antiquated  muzzle-loaders. 
The  French  had  three  fine  vessels,  mounting 
49  guns,  with  1235  men.  The  Dutch  squad- 
ron consisted  of  four  heavy  ships,  carrying  58 
guns,  served  by  951  men. 

What  was  the  American  force  ?  Our  civil 
war  was  in  progress,  and  the  only  national 
ship  on  the  station  was  the  sailing  sloop  of 
war  "Jamestown,'*  Captain  Cicero  Price, 
worthless  in  a  dangerous  strait  with  a  narrow 
channel  and  the  tide  running  like  a  mill-race. 
Yet  the  moral  influence  of  the  United  States 
188 


War  With  One  Gun 

was  desirable,  as  showing  united  action  of  the 
powers.  So,  like  a  tiny  bantam  amid  big 
fighting-cocks,  the  little  steamer  "  Ta  Kiang  " 
of  600  tans  was  chartered.  A  thirty-pounder 
Parrott  gun  from  the  "  Jamestown "  was 
mounted  on  her  deck.  Lieutenant  Frederick 
Pearson,  with  a  party  of  thirty  marines  and 
sailors,  was  sent  to  co-operate  with  the  fleet 
in  towing  or  carrying  the  wounded.  The 
ordinary  complement  of  this  merchant  ship's 
officers  and  sailors  was  to  work  the  steamer, 
while  Pearson  and  his  men  were  to  give  it  a 
martial  air.  Nothing  was  said  about  fighting. 
Since  the  government  at  Washington  could 
not  be  communicated  with,  and  approval  of 
the  action  of  Pruyn  and  Price  was  not  cer- 
tain, Pearson  was  given  orders  which  he 
might  interpret  to  suit  a  Quaker  —  or  other- 
wise. In  reality,  despite  Washington's  warn- 
ing against  "  entangling  alliances,"  here  was  a 
case  in  which  the  United  States  was  allied 
with  three  European  powers  for  war-purposes 
against  an  Oriental  people.  It  forms  a  strik- 
ing precedent.     Was  it  the  first  ? 

The  greatest  of  naval  battles  in  Japanese 
waters  was  fought  September  5  and  6,  1864. 
189 


I 


America  in  the  East 

The  six  heavy  ships  took  up  a  position  on 
the  left,  fronting  the  town  and  the  ten  bat- 
teries, which  mounted  sixty-two  cannon. 
The  five  light  vessels  made  a  flanking  squad- 
ron on  the  right,  while  in  the  centre  were  the 
largest  ships,  —  "  Euryalus,'*  "  Conqueror," 
and  "  Semiramis,"  —  all  finely  equipped  with 
heavy  rifled  guns,  and  among  them  was  the 
little  "Ta  Kiang."  In  the  battle  which  fol- 
lowed, lasting  during  the  afternoon  and  next 
morning,  the  "  Ta;  Kiang "  took  part,  doing 
splendid  execution  at  three  thousand  yards 
with  her  rifled  Parrott.  In  a  trial  of  speed, 
Pearson's  men  actually  beat  the  gun-squad  of 
the  "  Euryalus "  with  her  breech-loading 
lOO-pounder  Armstrong  gun.  It  must  be 
remembered,  however,  that  the  method  of 
breech-loading  was  in  those  days  so  clumsy 
that  this  feature  was  later  abandoned  in  the 
British  navy.  It  was  resumed  when  the 
notable  improvement  of  hinging  the  breech, 
and  putting  in  a  gas-escape  check,  and  an 
outward  latch  on,  made  breech-loading  the 
only  method  worth  considering. 

The  "  Ta  Kiang  **  assisted  handsomely  in 
towing  the  boats  of  the  landing  force  which 
190 


War  With  One  Gun 

captured  and  dismantled  all  the  forts,  but 
beat  all  the  vessels  and  quickly  landed  the 
fifty-six  wounded  on  board  in  the  hospital  at 
Yokohama.  Pearson  was  warmly  praised  by 
the  British,  French,  and  Dutch  admirals,  and 
awarded  by  Queen  Victoria  the  decoration 
of  the  Order  of  the  Bath,  which  Congress 
allowed  him  to  wear.  Yet  neither  McDougal 
nor  Pearson  ever  received  promotion,  notice, 
or  thanks  for  his  superb  and  shining  example 
of  duty  nobly  done.  In  May,  1898,  a 
prominent  Japanese  editor  wrote  :  "  The  ex- 
pedition against  Choshiu  did  more  to  open 
Japan's  eyes  than  anything  else.'* 


I9i 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

A    BRUSH    WITH    FORMOSA    SAVAGES 

OUR  civil  war  being  over,  Farragut's 
flag-ship,  the  "  Hartford,"  Commo- 
dore H.  H.  Bell,  joined  the  China  squadron. 
The  American  bark  "  Rover "  had  been 
wrecked  on  the  southeast  corner  of  Formosa, 
and  her  crew  murdered  by  the  copper-colored 
natives,  whose  favorite  sport  was  head-hunt- 
ing. As  usual,  the  Chinese  mandarins  could 
do  nothing.  So  on  June  13,  1867,  guided 
to  the  right  place  by  British  residents  of 
Takao,  a  force  of  1 8 1  marines  and  sailors  was 
landed  from  the  "  Hartford  "  and  "  Wyom- 
ing, "  who  were  to  go  into  the  bamboo  jungles 
to  chastisethese  Indian-like  skulking  cannibals. 
After  four  hours*  marching  in  the  frightful 
moist  heat*  of  darkest  Formosa,  unable  to 
see  but  a  few  feet  in  the  tangled  thickets, 
"  a  fight  in  a  furnace "  took  place,  in  which 
Lieutenant-Commander     Alexander      Slidell 

Mackenzie,  one  of  the  finest  officers  in  the 
192 


Formosa  Savages 

navy,  was  slain.  The  loss  of  the  enemy,  who 
were  scarcely  visible  in  the  undergrowth,  and 
were  only  indicated  by  the  frequent  flash  of 
a  gun-barrel  in  the  sunlight  or  the  puflF 
of  smoke  from  their  hiding-place,  was  not 
known.  Beyond  burning  a  few  huts,  little 
damage  was  done.  The  body  of  Mackenzie 
found  a  hospitable  grave  in  the  garden  of  the 
British  consulate  at  Takao,  which  again  showed 
that  "  blood  is  thicker  than  water."  A  young 
officer  named  Sigsbee,  afterward  captain  of 
the  battle-ship  "  Maine,"  made  a  sketch  of 
the  funeral  and  burial-spot. 

American  interests  in  Formosa  were  after- 
ward handsomely  served  by  General  Le 
Gendre,  United  States  consul  at  Amoy.  A 
few  months  later,  January  ii,  1868,  Admiral 
Bell,  with  Lieutenant  Read  and  ten  sailors, 
was  drowned  in  the  upsetting  of  a  boat  off  the 
ever-dangerous  Osaka  bar,  Japan.  No  Amer- 
ican officer  of  so  high  rank  had  thus  far  died  on 
this  station.  The  graves  of  the  seamen  in 
Kobe  Cemetery,  like  those  at  Shimoda,  Yoko- 
hama, and  other  points  in  the  Far  East,  are 
faithfully  and  lovingly  decorated  by  our  men 
annually  on  May  30.  Memorial  day  is  always 
13  193 


I 


America  in  the  East 

impressively  observed  by  our  men  abroad. 
Usually,  in  the  case  of  recent  burials,  our 
American  tars  lay  flowers  on  the  graves  or 
hang  a  wreath  on  the  monuments  of  their 
British  sailor-mates  also.  "  Blood  is  thicker 
than  water." 

Americans  could  not  but  rejoice  when, 
in  1895,  the  Japanese  took  over  Formosa 
from  the  Chinese,  and  began  to  govern  it 
decently. 


194 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

THE     KOREAN     EXPEDITION 

JAPAN  had  forged  ahead  in  enlightened 
progress,  but  Korea  persisted  in  her 
mood  of  morose  seclusion.  Besides  American 
vessels  shipwrecked  on  her  inhospitable  coasts, 
the  crew  of  the  schooner  "  General  Sherman,'* 
which,  early  in  August,  1866,  entered 
the  Ping- Yang  River,  met  violent  deaths. 
Whether  "  merchant  or  invader,"  aggrieved  or 
aggressors,  those  on  board  lost  their  lives. 
The  Koreans,  first  with  fire-rafts  and  then  with 
weapons,  had  attacked  and  slain  them  all. 
The  facts  in  the  case  were  investigated  and 
found  about  twenty  years  afterward  by  Ensign 
John  B.  Bernadou,  the  first  naval  officer 
wounded  in  our  present  war  with  Spain. 

To  inquire  into  the  "  General  Sherman " 
affair,  and  to  make  a  treaty,  an  American  force, 
consisting  of  the  "  Colorado,"  "  Alaska," 
"  Benicia,"  "  Palos,"  "  Ashuelot,"  and  "  Mono- 
cacy,"  under  "  fighting  John  Rodgers,"  moved 
195 


America  in  the  East 

into  the  Han  River,  on  which  Han- Yang,  the 
Seoul,  or  capital  of  Korea,  is  situated.  With 
Mr.  F.  F.  Low,  our  minister  in  Peking,  with 
whom  was  the  responsibility  of  peace  or  war, 
our  men  caught  sight  of  the  superb  scenery  of 
Korea  at  Boisee  Island,  May  30.  Only  the 
"  Palos  "  and  the  old  double-ender  "  Mono- 
cacy,"  now  the  "  Noah's  Ark"  of  the  Asiatic 
squadron,  could  enter  the  river.  On  June  2, 
leaving  the  heavy  vessels  behind,  four  steam- 
launches  and  the  two  gun-boats  moved 
out  to  the  work  of  surveying.  Around 
the  bend  of  the  river  was  "  a  whirlpool 
as  bad  as  Hell  Gate,"  and  a  channel  only 
three  hundred  feet  wide.  To  the  surprise  of 
the  Americans,  there  was  a  fort  and  a  new 
earth-work  mounting  several  thirty- two 
pounders,  and  hundreds  of  jingals  lashed  by 
fives  to  logs.  The  treacherous  Korean  com- 
mander was  one  second  too  late.  A  storm  of 
fire  burst  and  clouds  of  smoke  rose  over  the 
fort,  while  the  water  was  torn  into  foam  and 
our  men  soused  in  the  splash.  One  Ameri- 
can was  wounded,  but  of  the  two  or  three 
hundred  Korean  missiles  of  many  sizes,  not  one 
injured  a  ship  or  boat.  The  bow  guns  of  the 
196 


From  Harper's  Magazine. — Copyright,  1898,  by  Harper  &  Brothers. 

Captain  Homer  Blake. 


The  Korean  Expedition 

launches,  the  cannon  of  the  moving  "  Palos," 
and  the  ten-inch  shells  of  the  "  Monocacy  "  at 
anchor  quickly  cleared  the  fort  of  its  defenders, 
the  white-coated  Koreans  flying  like  sheep 
before  the  well-dropped  shells. 

Those  who  know  the  inside  of  the  hermit 
nation's  history  do  not  wonder  at  the  silli- 
ness, obstinacy,  and  ill-concealed  contempt  of 
the  Tai  Wen  Kun's  cat's-paws,  called  officers, 
who  from  the  first  rudely  rejected  all  offers  of 
intercourse.  This  prince-father,  with  heart 
of  stone  and  bowels  of  iron,  an  intense  hater  of 
foreigners  and  Christianity,  was  then  the 
virtual  ruler  of  Korea.  Admiral  Rodgers 
allowed  ten  days  for  some  apology  for  the 
treacherous  attack,  but  none  coming,  an 
expedition  of  chastisement  was  prepared. 
The  two  gunboats,  four  launches,  and  twenty 
boats  carried  ten  companies  of  infantry  with 
seven  pieces  of  artillery,  the  105  marines  and 
546  sailors  being  organized  as  a  landing  force. 
With  the  sailors  of  the  "  Monocacy"  and 
"  Palos,"  this  expedition,  under  Captain  Homer 
C.  Blake,  numbered  759  men  in  all.  Among 
the  active  officers  were  Winfield  Scott  Schley, 
Silas  Casey,  C.  M.  Chester,  L.  A.  Kimberly, 
197 


America  in  the  East 

Douglas  Casselj  Seaton  Schroeder,  Albion  W 
WadhamSj  and  others  now  famous. 

The  "  Monocacy,"  strengthened  with  two 
nine-inch  guns  from  the  "  Colorado,"  led  the 
way  up  the  river  June  lo,  and  quickly  breached 
the  wall  of  stone,  ten  feet  high,  and  emptied 
with  her  shells  the  first  of  the  five  forts  built 
on  three  promontories.  Our  men  landed  eight 
hundred  yards  below  the  fort,  and  went  into 
camp.  After  destroying  everything  warlike  in 
the  stone  fort  and  the  water-battery,  they 
bivouacked  under  the  stars,  the  marines  guard- 
ing the  outpost.  In  the  dark  the  white-clothed 
Koreans  moved  about  like  ghosts,  firing  on 
our  pickets.  The  next  day,  dragging  their 
howitzers  over  the  hills,  our  men  moved 
towards  the  next  line  of  fortifications  called  the 
"  middle  "  fort.  After  the  "  Monocacy  "  had 
shelled  it  into  silence,  and  the  marines  found 
it  deserted,  the  sailors  destroyed  everything 
in  it. 

Up  hill  and  down  dale  in  this  country, 
rough  to  soldiers  dragging  cannon,  but  a 
dream  of  beauty  to  tourist  and  poet,  our 
men  moved  to  the  main  stronghold,  which 
seemed  perched  like  an  eagle's  eyry  upon  a 
198 


The  Korean  Expedition 

high  rocky  bluff.  How  could  such  a  citadel 
be  stormed  by  men  without  wings  to  fly  ? 
This  fort,  mounting  153  guns,  large  and  small, 
was  fully  garrisoned  by  stalwart  tiger-hunters 
from  the  north.  To  the  left  thousands  of 
armed  natives  were  gathering  in  dark  masses 
on  the  flanks  of  the  Americans,  and  in  a  rush 
on  the  howitzer  companies  of  the  rear-guard 
and  outposts  they  might  overwhelm  their  foes. 
Some  of  our  men  were  already  prostrated  by 
the  heat.  Something  must  be  done  quickly. 
From  a  ravine,  up  the  steep  incline  of  a  cone 
150  feet  high,  our  men  must  climb  in  face 
of  jingal  and  musket  fire.  Fortunately,  the 
shrapnel  of  the  howitzers  kept  the  clouds  of 
warriors  on  the  flanks  at  a  distance,  while  the 
"  Monocacy's  **  shells  had  breached  the  walls. 
At  the  right  moment  Casey  gave  the  order, 
and  up  the  ladderlike  cliffs  our  men  rushed 
amid  a  rain  of  jingal  balls.  When  the  tiger- 
hunters  could  no  longer  load  their  clumsy 
pieces,  stones,  dirt,  arrows,  and  spears  were 
their  weapons.  Fighting  with  desperation 
in  the  hand-to-hand  struggle,  the  Koreans 
chanted  a  death-dirge  in  melancholy  cadence. 
The  majority  were  slain  inside  the  walls,  and 
199 


America  in  the  East 

the  few  fugitives  were  quickly  annihilated  by 
the  rifles  of  McLean's  sailors  and  the  canister 
of  CasseFs  howitzer  battery.  About  350 
Koreans  were  slain.  Only  twenty  prisoners, 
all  wounded,  were  taken  alive.  The  other 
two  forts,  open  to  the  rear  from  the  main 
work,  were  easily  entered. 

On  our  side,  Lieutenant  McKee  and  two 
other  men  were  killed,  and  ten  wounded. 
Five  forts,  50  flags,  481  jingals  and  cannon 
(27  being  heavy  guns),  and  hundreds  of 
matchlocks  were  captured  as  the  result  of  the 
two  days'  operation.  Courage,  zeal,  and  dis- 
cipline marked  our  heroes  throughout.  Ex- 
cept possibly  in  the  disembarkation  on  a 
mud  flat,  it  is  difficult,  from  a  naval  point 
of  view,  to  see  how  the  operations  could 
have  been  more  wisely  planned  or  more  scien- 
tifically carried  out.  Some  of  the  Korean 
cotton-armor  suits,  flags,  lances,  and  rude 
breech-loading  cannon,  of  a  model  like 
those  used  by  Columbus,  were  brought  to 
Washington. 

Seen  in  the  perspective  of  Korean  history. 
It  seems  now  utterly  improbable  that  any 
treaty  could   have   been    made  at    the    time 


The  Korean  Expedition 

when  the  Tai  Wen  Kun  ruled  the  country. 
Even  so  sound  an  authority  as  the  late  S. 
Wells  Williams  declared  to  the  writer  that 
Rodgers's  chastisement  of  the  Koreans  helped 
to  make  them  willing  to  treat  with  their  fellow- 
creatures  in  1882.  After  a  winter  of  negotia- 
tion in  Peking,  Commodore  R.  W.  Shufeldt, 
in  the  United  States  steamship  "  Swatara," 
off  Chemulpo,  May  19,  signed  the  document 
whiclt"ordained  peace  and  friendship  between 
one  of  the  smallest  and  one  of  the  greatest 
of  nations,  and  his  guns  saluted  the  new  flag 
of  Korea.  To-day,  in  Seoul,  the  young  stars 
and  stripes  and  the  age-old  mystic  symbols 
and  diagrams  wave  in  harmony.  Electric 
lights,  an  American-built  railway,  the  first 
in  the  kingdom,  improved  machinery  and 
methods,  to  say  naught  of  schools,  teachers, 
hospitals,  and  physicians,  show  the  change 
from  isolation  and  barbarism. 

It  has  been  only  in  the  nineties  that  Ameri- 
can steel  ships  with  modern  armament  have 
been  seen  in  Asiatic  waters.  On  the  3d  of 
January  of  this  year.  Commodore  Dewey 
hoisted  his  pennant  on  the  United  States 
steamship   "  Olympia,"    and    his    subsequent 


201 


America  in  the  East 

exploits  are  known.  Let  not  the  lustre  of 
his  fame  be  dimmed,  or  the  credit  of  his 
daring  acts  be  discounted.  Yet  in  Asiatic 
waters  there  were  brave  Americans  before 
him.     All  honor  to  them  ! 


202 


CHAPTER   XXIX 

THE    HISTORIC    MOVEMENT    TOWARDS 
THE    PACIFIC 

IT  was  an  apocalyptic  vision  to  Vasco 
Nunez  de  Balboa  as  he  stood  on  the 
Darien  peak  and  gazed  upon  a  sea  unknown 
before.  Thus  to  the  European  conscious- 
ness the  mightiest  of  oceans  was  revealed. 
America  had  been  the  great  obstacle  to  those 
who,  by  means  of  a  straight  westward  pas- 
sage over  the  waters,  would  reach  China  and 
the  Spice  Islands.  Through  the  long  course 
of  explorations  in  America  the  one  aim  of 
Europeans  was  to  find  a  waterway  to  China. 
But  centuries  were  required  for  the  unveiling 
of  the  American  continent  even  In  outline  ; 
nor  Is  its  northern  end  known  yet.  Only 
now  Is  the  full  significance  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean  and  Its  Importance  beginning  to  dawn 
upon  the  civilized  world.  Compared  to  this 
vast  area. of  blue  water,  the  Atlantic  Ocean  Is 
but  a  lake. 

203 


America  in  the  East 

Looking  at  this  greatest  of  oceans  from  the 
other  or  Asian  side,  there  was  no  knowledge 
or  consciousness  of  its  vastness.  From  the 
unlettered  men  of  the  Australasian  continent 
and  archipelagoes,  to  the  highly  civilized 
Chinese  and  Japanese,  the  "great  sea"  was 
simply  a  vast  unknown,  into  which  disap- 
peared every  year  fishermen  and  sailors. 
Legend  and  fairy  tale  told  of  Utopias  and 
wonderful  lands  beyond,  or  on  the  sea-floor 
located  the  abodes  of  the  undying,  with 
dragon  kings  and  queens  decked  in  coral  and 
pearl ;  but  the  "  great  sea "  never  mirrored 
the  sail  of  home-coming  ships  after  they  had 
been  swept  into  the  swift  Black  Tide. 
Nevertheless,  from  between  Luzon  and 
Lombok  this  great  current,  which,  through 
all  the  unmarked  centuries,  and  perhaps  every 
year,  bore  northward  on  its  bosom  unwilling 
emigrants,  conscripts  of  fate,  made  a  pathway 
to  America.  In  this  sea,  food  was  always 
plentiful.  Landmarks  by  day,  illuminating 
volcanoes  by  night,  and  even  habitable  shores 
were  never  far  away.  Thus  Nature,  or  Pro- 
vidence, had  made  a  natural  highway,  furnish- 
ing also  food,  motor-power,  lighthouses,  and 
204 


Movement  towards  the  Pacific 

guideposts.  It  was  along  the  Philippine, 
Japanese,  Kurile,  Aleutian,  and  Alaskan 
archipelagoes  that  America  was,  in  one  way 
at  least,  populated. 

Now  the  time  has  come  when  nature's 
highways  of  wind  and  current  are  made 
obsolete  by  steam.  The  intercourse  is 
mutual,  and  in  direct  lines.  Including  bays 
and  islands,  the  United  States,  even  without 
Alaska,  has  a  total  coast-line  of  21,354  miles, 
of  which  3,251  miles  front  the  Pacific  rim. 
The  coast-line  of  Alaska  is  greater  than  that 
of  our  Atlantic  seaboard  of  12,359  i^il^s.  We 
are  within  forty-five  miles  of  Russia.  Our 
westernmost  island  of  Attu  brings  our  frontier 
within  seven  hundred  miles  of  Japan.  Our 
steamers  now  cross  from  San  Francisco  to 
Yokohama  in  twelve  or  fifteen  and  to  China 
in  eighteen  days.  The  central  archipelago 
of  Hawaii,  and  some  smaller  islands  or  foot- 
holds in  the  Micronesian  Archipelago,  are 
ours.  We  have  possession  of  the  Philippines 
—  the  gateway  to  China,  which  is  the  richest 
single  market  in  the  world.  Let  us  inquire 
concerning  the  possibilities  of  this  domain. 
William  H.  Seward,  one  of  the  wisest  of 
205 


America  in  the  East 

statesmen,  the  first  and  most  far-seeing  be- 
liever in  the  expansion  of  the  United  States 
beyond  the  Pacific,  wrote  over  a  generation 
ago: 

"  The  Pacific  Ocean,  its  shores,  its  islands, 
V.  and  the  vast  regions  beyond,  will  become  the 
chief  theatre  of  events  in  the  world^s  great 
hereafter."  We  are  to-day  seeing  the  fulfil- 
ment of  his  vision,  which  has  become  reality. 

The  central  sea  of  human  interests  was 
once  the  Mediterranean  or  Mid-Earth  Sea. 
Again,  the  Atlantic  became  such.  Now  the 
largest  of  oceans  between  the  greatest  of 
land-masses  on  the  globe,  well  fitted  for  man's 
noblest  achievements,  is  to  win  its  honors 
long  waited  for.  Already  more  than  one-half 
of  the  race  dwells  by  its  shores.  If  the  popu- 
lation of  the  globe  be  1,500,000,000,  and, 
ignoring  the  Atlantic  coasts,  we  assign  to  the 
western  American  slope  40,000,000;  to 
Australasia,  Dutch  East  Indies,  Philippines, 
and  the  islands  of  Oceania,  52,000,000 ;  to  the 
British  Indies  and  dependencies,  290,000,000 ; 
to  the  Malay  Peninsula  and  Siam,  9,000,000 ; 
to  French  India  and  Indo-China,  22,000,000; 
to  Korea  and  eastern  Siberia,  21,000,000;  to 
206 


Movement  towards  the  Pacific 

Japan  and  Formosa,  45,000,000;  to  the 
Chinese  Empire  and  islands,  400,000,000,  — 
we  shall  have  a  total  of  878,000,000  souls,  or 
considerably  more  than  one-half  of  the  world's 
population,  in  the  Pacific  area. 

Providence,  or  the  Power  that  guides 
human  development,  invites  us  to  look  abroad. 
The  world-house  is  being  rebuilt.  It  is  no 
longer  Japanese-like,  set  behind  moats,  with 
the  garden  in  the  rear.  It  is  now  to  be  on 
the  American  model,  with  plenty  of  piazza 
and  front  windows.  Our  eleven  States  which 
we  reckon  within  the  Pacific  territory  have  as 
yet  but  six  per  cent  of  the  population  and  ten 
per  cent  of  the  wealth  of  the  Union.  Cali- 
fornia, Oregon,  and  Washington  possess  about 
sixty  per  cent  of*  the  wealth  of  the  whole 
group,  yet  these  eleven  States  have  as  yet  but 
about  six  per  cent  of  the  whole  foreign  trade 
of  our  country.  Nevertheless,  theirs  is  the 
grander  promise  and  potency.  Looking  at 
the  extraordinary  growth  of  this  region,  re- 
membering that  only  "  a  cycle  of  Cathay  "  ago 
there  were  not  as  many  hundreds  as  there  are 
now  millions  of  white  residents  in  these  States, 
and  that,  instead  of  the  English-speaking 
207 


America  in  the  East 

republics  in  Australia  and  New  Zealand,  these 
lands  under  the  Southern  Cross  were  little 
more  than  lines  on  a  map  and  empty  of  white 
men,  we  must  acknowledge  the  transfer  of 
world-interest. 

The  white  man  is  rushing  both  ways,  from 
east  and  west.  The  centre  of  the  world's 
hopes  and  ambitions  has  shifted  to  the  Pacific. 
The  Russian  is  marching  seaward,  building 
his  railways  as  he  goes,  settling  the  great 
plains  and  valleys  of  southern  Siberia,  and 
commanding  northern  China.  Where  thirty 
years  ago  forests  stood  and  tigers  were  shot, 
stands  Vladivostok,  a  city  of  fifty  thousand 
people.  Southwardly,  in  warmer  and  richer 
regions,  the  Briton  owns  a  splendid  highway 
to  India,  lined  with  islands,  fortresses,  and 
coaling  stations,  which  he  holds  for  the  good 
of  a  fifth  of  the  race.  He  is  exploring  the 
African  valley  from  Cairo  to  the  Cape  for  a 
railway,  which  will  be  free  to  the  world.  In 
the  tropics,  he  holds  superb  ports,  islands,  and 
coast  tracts.  In  the  south  temperate  zone, 
he  has  built  up  great  commonwealths  betv/een 
Capricorn  and  the  Antarctic.  On  the  bosom 
of  the  Southern  Pacific,  the  Union  Jack  is  the 
208 


Movement  towards  the  Pacific 

predominating  flag.  He  is  our -friend,  and  is 
stretching  out  hands  to  greet  and  welcome  us, 
and  to  ask  that  we  co-work  with  him  for  the 
good  of  the  world.  Japan,  a  new  naval  and 
industrial  empire,  under  predominantly  Anglo- 
Saxon  influences,  has  started  up.  Obtuse- 
nerved  China  is  awakening  to  the  realization 
that  the  face  of  the  world  has  changed.  The 
Malay  race  now  waits  for  its  uplift  and  fruition, 
under  the  tutelage  of  nations  holding  that 
open  Bible  which  knows  no  special  favorites 
of  Heaven,  but  only  new  men  in  the  image  of 
the  holiest  man. 

On  our  American  side,  British  energy  and 
capital  have  built  a  railway  across  Canada,  and 
started  splendid  lines  of  steamers  to  win  the 
carrying  trade  of  the  tea  and  silk  countries. 
Across  the  United  States  the  centre  of  popu- 
lation moves  westward  every  year.  It  is 
already  near  the  Mississippi  River.  New 
highways  of  stone  or  iron  are  being  built,  and 
new  lines  of  ships  launched,  while  already 
Hawaii  is  ours.  In  the  nature  of  things,  our 
chief  industrial  outlet  must  be  toward  the 
West  and  over  the  Pacific.  In  Europe,  our  r  ^ 
manufactures    can    win    but   limited   success,;        \/ 

14  209  /    ' 


America  in  the  East 

owing  to  hereditary  skill  and  keen  competi- 
tion; but  in  those  great  markets  in  countries 
bordering  the  Pacific  where  half  the  popula- 
tion of  the  globe  is,  European  and  American 
meet  on  neutral  but  not  on  equal  ground,  for 
we  have  the  advantage,  possibly,  of  finer  in- 
ventive power,  and  certainly  of  nearness, 
which  means  cheaper  freights.  As  our  coun- 
try becomes  more  densely  populated,  as  "  the 
West"  becomes  settled,  conservative,  and 
*'  slow,"  a  larger  export  in  commerce  will  be 
an  absolute  necessity.  This  we  shall  find  in 
what  was  the  Far  East,  but  is  now  our  near 
West. 


2IO 


CHAPTER  XXX 

TRADE    AND    MARKETS    IN    ASIA 

SIGNS  are  already  manifest  that  our  ocean- 
carrying  trade  is  moving  swiftly  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  In  one  decade, 
from  1884  to  1894,  the  shipping  on  the 
Atlantic  coast  decreased  by  about  130,000 
tons,  while  that  on  the  Pacific  coast  increased 
by  about  125,000  tons.  Everything  points 
to  a  large  increase,  within  a  few  years,  of  our 
share  in  that  commerce  on  both  sides  the 
Pacific  basin,  which  has  already  reached  a 
total  of  twenty  million  tons  annually.  In  five 
or  ten  years,  or  at  least  within  a  generation, 
there  will  be  railways  in  China,  the  Nicaraguan 
Canal,  a  fairly  complete  American  railway 
system  from  Alaska  to  Chili,  and  the  trans- 
x^siatic  railway  completed.  Then  the  present 
^5,000,000,000  of  Pacific  Ocean  commerce  will 
doubtless  be  doubled  in  amount. 

The  writer  of  this  article  remembers  when, 
the  foreign    trade  with    Japan  amounting  to 
211 


America  in  the  East 

less  than  $10,000  a  year,  men  sniffed  and 
sneered  at  the  idea  of  the  Mikado's  Empire 
ever  being  worth  the  attention  of  first-class 
European  and  American  trading  houses.  Now 
Japan  is  a  factor  of  nearly  first-class  influence 
in  the  new  world-problem.  Her  industrial 
movement  is  no  sudden  spasm.  It  is  based 
on  the  healthy  growth  of  democracy,  which 
moves  to  the  realization  of  the  noble  political 
ideals.  If  only  her  constitutional,  political, 
and  her  industrial  expansion  proceed  at  an 
equal  rate,  and  is  kept  pure  by  a  steadily 
improving  morality,  then  Japan  will  be  a 
great  controlling  power  in  the  Pacific,  and 
pretty  sure,  with  fair  treatment  by  us,  to  work 
in  harmony  with  "  the  Anglo-Saxons,"  by 
which  we  mean  speakers  of  the  English 
language.  Thirty-five  years  ago,  Japan  had 
not  so  much  as  one  tall  chimney  in  the  way 
of  associated  industrialism,  or  an  iron  rail, 
or  a  steamer.  To-day,  she  has  hundreds  of 
cotton-mills,  with  nearly  a  milHon  spindles, 
employing  25,000  operatives.  Instead  of 
sending  out  a  few  curios,  she  now  exports  silk, 
tea,  tobacco,  woven  goods,  matches,  various 
manufactures,  and  coal.  Her  foreign  com- 
212 


Trades  and  Markets  in  Asia 

merce  amounted  in  1897  to  nearly  1200,000,- 
000.  The  national  revenue  has  doubled  in 
twenty  years,  and  the  general  wealth  tripled 
since  foreign  commerce  began. 

On  the  other  side  is  China,  which  has 
regions  capable  of  producing  everything,  and 
a  population  that  can  be  educated  into  appre- 
ciation of  almost  all  that  Occidental  skill  and 
experience  can  supply.  China's  conversion 
and  regeneration  will  come  from  without,  but 
the  child  is  already  born  who  will  live  to  see 
the  Empire  threaded  with  railroads.  Yet, 
some  day,  she  will  change  from  being  a  passive 
instrument  of  the  ambition  of  Russia  and 
France,  and  will  become  an  active  agent.  The 
industrial  revolution  has  already  begun,  and 
both  her  exports  and  imports  are  changing. 
She  has  coal,  iron,  petroleum,  natural  gas, 
sugar-cane,  tobacco,  indigo,  cotton,  and  all  sorts 
of  food  supplies.  The  reign  of  Confucius 
will  not  last  forever.  The  next  "  cycle  of 
Cathay ''  will  mean  more  to  the  world  than 
ever  Mr.  Tennyson  dreamed. 

India  has  also  changed.  Her  traditional 
products  of  opium,  indigo,  and  spices  are  now 
in  the  shadow  compared  with  her  raw  and 
213 


America  in  the  East 

manufactured  cotton,  jute  and  jute  goods,  oil, 
seeds,  wheat,  rice,  wool,  timber,  and  coal. 
Korea's  foreign  trade,  which  a  decade  ago  was 
nearly  nil,  amounted  in  1897  to  111,755,625. 

It  is  more  than  probable  that  Britain, 
assisted  very  probably  by  the  United  States, 
will  maintain  "  the  open  door "  in  China. 
This  means  that,  despite  all  that  Russia  or 
France  may  do  in  conditioning  Chinese  trade 
and  development  north  and  south,  the  richest 
part  of  China,  the  valley  of  the  Yang-tse, 
with  an  area  of  six  hundred  thousand  square 
miles,  inhabited  by  the  most  naturally  indus- 
trious and  commercial  people  in  the  East, 
will  be  our  open  market.  The  Great  River 
flows  into  the  Pacific,  and  already  Shanghai 
at  its  mouth,  "  the  coming  New  York  of  the 
Far  East,"  has  an  annual  foreign  trade  of 
nearly  ^80,000,000. 

To-day,  of  the  lands  bordering  on  the 
Pacific,  Anglo-Saxon  nations  hold  Alaska, 
British  America,  and  the  United  States,  while 
the  Union  Jack  and  the  Stars  and  Stripes  are 
now  the  ruling  flags  in  the  central  Pacific. 
British  peoples  rule  New  Zealand,  Australia, 
Hong-Kong,  parts  of  New  Guinea  and 
214 


Trades  and  Markets  in  Asia 

Borneo.  France  holds  land  in  Annam 
between  Siam  and  the  China  Sea.  Germany 
has  part  of  Samoa  and  the  port  of  Kiao-Chau 
in  China.  The  Dutch  possess  Sumatra,  Java, 
Celebes,  Lombok,  and  other  islands  forming 
Insulinde  or  Island  India,  whose  inhabitants 
number  nearly  34,000,000  people.  Alarmists 
have  started  the  story  that  the  Netherlands 
Government  contemplates  building  a  steel- 
clad  fleet  in  order  to  protect  its  oceanic  pos- 
sessions against  probably  American  aggression. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the  proposal  to 
do  so  was  made  before  the  Hispano-American 
war  broke  out,  and  was  rejected  in  the  last 
session  of  the  States-General.  The  Nether- 
lands have  no  fear  of  the  United  States,  but 
of  Germany  only. 


215 


CHAPTER   XXXI 

OUR    FRIENDSHIP    WITH    RUSSIA 

ONE  Striking  fact,  which  includes  a  long 
series  of  events  that  belong  to  our  his- 
tory in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  is  our  friendship 
with  Russia.  Being  so  deeply  rooted  in  the 
past,  this  must  condition  our  future  develop- 
ment there.  It  must  also  remain  a  permanent 
element  in  any  consideration  of  a  possible 
alliance  with  English-speaking  nations.  Sur- 
prising to  many  Europeans  is  this  mutual 
sentiment  between  an  absolute  despotism  and 
a  democratic  republic.  Yet  this  friendship 
has  roots  that  go  back  in  time  as  far  as 
William  Penn  and  Czar  Peter.  In  1671  the 
founder  of  Pennsylvania — the  man  who  an- 
ticipated in  his  writings  both  the  Czar*s  ireni- 
con  and  that  federation  of  nations  which  may 
yet  come  —  held  an  interview.  Penn  talked 
in  his  mother's  Dutch  tongue  with  the  Rus- 
sian autocrat  who,  to  civilize  his  people,  be- 
came a  mechanic  and  ship-carpenter.  Again, 
216 


Our  Friendship  with  Russia 

in  the  days  when  George  the  Third,  urged 
on  by  the  corrupt  Parhamentary  ring  which 
forced  the  American  Revolution,  applied  for 
twenty  thousand  Russian  soldiers  to  fight  our 
fathers,  Queen  Catherine  refused  to  lend  a 
single  mercenary.  On  the  contrary,  she  pro- 
posed and  consummated  the  Armed  Neutral- 
ity. Both  actions  touched  the  hearts  of  our 
fathers.  It  was  by  the  orders  of  his  imperial 
master  the  Czar,  that  Dashkoff,  the  Russian 
minister  at  Washington,  in  1813,  offered  his 
services  to  our  government  to  bring  about 
peace  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States.  President  Madison  accepted,  and 
thence  issued  the  Treaty  of  Ghent,  —  the 
inside  history  of  which  is  yet  to  be  written.  « 
From  the  very  first  appearance  of  the 
American  whalers  and  merchant  ships  in  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  the  friendship  of  the  Russians 
was  manifest.  The  first  treaty  with  the 
United  States  and  Russia,  in  1824,  was  ex- 
ceedingly liberal,  declaring  the  navigation  and 
fisheries  of  the  Pacific  free  to  people  of  both 
nations.  In  1830,  when  Commodore  Mat- 
thew Perry  was  sent,  in  the  new  ship  "  Con- 
cord," to  bear  John  Randolph  of  Roanoke  as 
217 


America  in  the  East 

our  first  Minister  to  Russia,  the  Czar  wished 
to  engage  American  naval  officers,  even  as  he 
afterwards  employed  American  engineers  to 
build  his  railways.  Friendly  relations  steadily 
deepened  between  the  two  countries,  until,  as 
we  all  remember,  a  Russian  fleet  was  sent  into 
our  waters  to  assist  us  in  our  Civil  War,  in 
case  of  hostile  interference  by  Great  Britain. 
In  both  countries  emancipation  took  place, 
the  serfs  being  liberated  in  1861,  and  the 
slaves  being  set  free  in  1863.  Both  emanci- 
pators, the  absolute  Czar  and  the  republican 
President,  fell  under  the  hands  of  the  assassin, 
and  thus  both  nations  were  united  in  sym- 
pathy and  sorrow. 

The  cession  of  Alaska  in  1867,  with  a  coast 
line  larger  than  our  older  one  on  the  Atlantic, 
made  Russia  on  her  Asiatic  side  our  nearest 
western  neighbor  and  pacific,  we  trust,  in  a 
two-fold  sense,  forever.  Since  the  triumph 
of  the  Union,  after  the  Civil  War,  American 
manufacturing  and  commercial  interests  have 
steadily  increased  in  importance  and  value 
in  "  all  the  Russias."  -No  American  admin- 
istration will  lightly  disturb  our  friendly  rela- 
tions with  this  mighty  Power. 
218 


CHAPTER   XXXII 

AMERICAN    ENTERPRISE    IN    THE    PACIFIC 

THERE  were  Americans  in  the  islands 
of  the  Pacific  and  countries  adjoining, 
even  while  our  fathers  were  colonists  under 
the  British  crown.  As  soon  as  a  treaty  of 
peace  with  Great  Britain  was  signed,  even  be- 
fore we  had  any  land  west  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  hardly  beyond  the  Alleghenies,  an  Ameri- 
can ship  "  Empress,"  of  which  Major  Shaw  of 
the  United  States  First  Artillery  was  super- 
cargo, sailed  on  Washington's  birthday  from 
New  York,  in  1784,  to  bear  the  flag  and 
extend  the  trade  of  the  young  republic.  In  the 
previous  year,  1783,  Captain  Kennedy,  in  the 
ship  "  Columbia,"  built  in  Plymouth  County, 
Massachusetts,  sailed  up  the  Oregon  River 
and  named  it.  Thus  the  record  of  American 
enterprise  on  both  sides  of  the  Pacific,  and  of 
honorable  achievement  in  the  Far  East,  begins 
almost  in  the  very  year  of  our  recognition  as 
a  nation  by  Great  Britain. 
219 


America  in  the  East 

Besides  the  barter  of  Canton  fire-crackers 
and  American  ginseng  (first  discovered  by  a 
Jesuit  priest  in  Vermont),  the  Chinese  de- 
manded our  furs.  A  profitable  commerce 
opened,  which  led  the  captains  and  crews  of 
hundreds  of  American  ships  to  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  whole  coast  line  of  America 
fronting  the  Pacific.  In  addition  to  furs  from 
America,  they  took  sandal  wood  from  Hawaii. 
After  trading  with  the  Asian  continent  and 
refitting  in  the  archipelago,  our  merchant  nav- 
igators returned  to  the  United  States  with  tea, 
silk,  and  porcelain.  The  Chinese  name  for 
Hawaii  is  still  the  "  Sandal  Wood  Islands." 
This  traffic  enriched  Kamehama  so  that  he 
was  able  to  unify  the  whole  archipelago.  At 
the  same  time,  Hawaiians  engaged  on  Ameri- 
can ships  attracted  the  notice  of  Christians 
at  home.  Indeed,  the  presence  of  two  of 
them  at  New  Haven  in  June,  1810,  helped 
to  kindle  the  impulses  that  led  to  the  for- 
mation of  the  American  Board  of  Commis- 
sioners for  Foreign  Missions,  —  one  of  the 
noblest  growths  of  the  mind  and  heart  of 
our  people. 

As  usual,  missionaries  were  pioneers,  and 
220 


American  Enterprise 

in  1 8 19  established  themselves  in  Hawaii. 
A  commercial  agent  arrived  in  1820,  though 
no  treaty  was  made  by  the  United  States, 
until  in  1823  one  was  negotiated  by  Captain 
T.  Ap  Catesby  Jones.  Not  only  did  our 
trade  with  China  enrich  us  in  many  ways,  but 
it  promoted  powerfully  the  development  of 
ship-building,  until,  in  the  American  clippers, 
built  to  supply  us  with  tea,  the  acme  of  grace, 
beauty,  and  speed  in  sailing  ships  was  reached. 
Can  any  one  say  that  the  American  acquisition 
of  the  Philippines,  so  near  to  markets  con- 
taining half  the  world,  will  not  similarly  stim- 
ulate trade  and  enterprise  ? 

American  diplomatists  in  the  Pacific  lands 
were  led  by  Edmund  Roberts,  of  Portsmouth, 
New  Hampshire.  In  the  United  States  Steam- 
ship "  Peacock,"  sent  out  by  President  Jack- 
son, he  made  treaties  with  Muscat  and  Siam. 
He  visited  Cochin-China,  and  was  preparing 
to  open  friendly  intercourse  with  China  and 
Japan,  when  he  was  taken  ill  and  died.  A 
long  line  of  successors  from  the  Country  of  the 
Flowery  Flag  followed  Roberts.  Joseph  Bal- 
estier,  our  consul  at  Singapore,  opened  trade 
with  Borneo  by  the  treaty  of  June  23,  1850 ; 
221 


America  in  the  East 

but  American  missionary  teachers  had  been  at 
work  on  the  island  as  early  as  1836.  Siam, 
China,  Japan,  and  finally  Korea  were  brought 
into  relations  with  the  United  States.  Of 
the  names  of  Caleb  Cushing,  Anson  Bur- 
lingame,  S.  Wells  Williams,  and  our  later 
envoys,  Seward  and  Denby,  associated  with 
China,  of  Matthew  Perry  and  Townsend 
Harris,  with  Japan,  of  R.  H.  Shufeldt  and 
H.  N.  Allen,  with  Korea,  we  may  well  be 
proud.  In  all  of  these  countries,  Americans 
have  been  foremost  in  introducing  the  best 
elements  of  civilization.  In  the  Caroline 
Islands,  they  have  lifted  up  a  race  from  can- 
nibalism to  decency,  writing,  hope,  and  enter- 
prise. Schools,  colleges,  hospitals,  literature, 
and  Christian  religion  have  made  the  same 
indelible  mark,  as  to  the  real  meaning  and 
purpose  of  Americans,  which  "  the  Great 
Pacific  Power,"  as  President  Arthur  called 
our  country,  has  stamped  on  Turkey,  India, 
Polynesia,  and  the  Far  East. 

In  making  known  to  the  world  this  might- 
iest of  oceans,  with  its  great  island-world,  its 
currents,   highways,    and   continental    shores, 
whether    luminous    in    history,   shadowy    in 
222 


American  Enterprise 

tradition,  or  utterly  unknown,  the  Americans 
have  not  been  behind  the  great  nations  of 
the  earth.  It  is  just  exactly  "  a  cycle  of 
Cathay,"  or  sixty  years,  since  that  American 
exploring  expedition  which,  under  Commodore 
Wilkes,  sailed  on  its  voyage  of  ninety  thou- 
sand miles,  revealed  the  Antarctic  continent, 
hitherto  unknown,  and  through  the  researches 
of  Charles  Pickering,  Horatio  Hale,  and  James 
D.  Dana,  so  enriched  science.  Thousands  of 
our  whaling  ships  became  familiar  with  the 
coast  line  of  both  Americas,  as  well  as  with 
the  lands  inside  the  tropics  and  close  to  the 
Arctic  and  Antarctic  Circles.  The  early  records 
of  New  England  ports,  such  as  Salem  and 
Newbury  port,  reveal  how  daring  were  our 
merchant  navigators  in  carrying  the  flag  and 
opening  trade  in  the  countries  of  the  Americas 
and  the  Chinas,  so  that  the  hermits  of  old 
Nippon  began  to  count  the  "black  ships" 
by  scores  and  hundreds  in  a  single  year. 
Captain  Silas  Bent,  with  Glynn  in  Japan  in 
1849,  ^"^  ^^^h  Perry  in  1853,  made  known 
the  existence  in  the  Pacific  of  the  Black  Tide, 
a  great  gulf-stream  similar  to  that  in  the 
Atlantic,  with  potencies  for  the  creation  of 
22^ 


America  in  the  East 

climates,  the  peopling  of  continents,  and  the 
regulation  of  an  ever-increasing  commerce. 

Space  does  not  allow  us  to  more  than  hint 
at  the  story  of  America  in  the  Pacific,  which 
grandly  deserves  a  volume.  Suffice  it  to  say 
that  for  over  a  century  we  have  had  an  army 
of  pioneers  who  scarcely  dreamed  of  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  movement  they  were  leading. 

Our  commercial  captains  who  first  carried 
the  American  flag  round  the  world,  our 
missionaries  and  first  diplomatists,  were  but 
pioneers  of  the  world-movement  now  cen- 
tring in  the  Pacific,  in  which  also  our  naval 
history  is  so  glorious.  This  is  concerned  not 
only  with  battles  and  bombardments,  with 
chastisements  of  piracy,  treachery,  and  cruelty 
to  the  shipwrecked,  with  war  and  the  shedding 
of  blood,  but  also  with  noble  works  of  science 
and  humanity.  On  land,  by  the  energy  and 
^\  pluck  of  Marcus  Whitman,  the  missionary, 
■  the  Northwest  slope,  Washington  and  Oregon, 
became  ours,  and,  later,  Fremont  and  Kearny 
won  for  us  California.  Then  Commodore 
Stockton  hoisted  our  flag  and  formed  a  pro- 
visional government.  In  the  South  Pacific, 
our  whaling  fleets  and  industry.  Porter's 
224 


American  Enterprise 

achievements  in  the  "  Essex  "  with  the  British 
ships  "  Phoebe  '*  and  "  Cherub  "  and  temporary- 
occupation  of  the  Marquesas  Islands;  the  naval 
exploits  in  Chinese  waters  of  Foote,  Tattnall, 
and  others ;  the  fights  with  pirates  and  their 
extinction ;  the  treaties  made  by  the  sailor- 
diplomatists  Perry  and  Shufeldt  with  Japan 
and  Korea,  with  two  brilliant  episodes  at 
Shimonoseki,  and  the  expedition  under  John 
Rodgers  in  Korea;  the  exploring  expedition 
of  Wilkes,  and  his  discoveries  on  the  Antarctic 
Continent ;  the  exploring  expedition  of  John 
Rodgers  through  Behring  Strait;  the  cruises 
of  the  "  Shenandoah  "  and  "  Ticonderoga ;  '*  the 
deep-sea  sounding  of  the  "  Tuscarora ;  **  the 
exhibition  of  man's  greatness  in  the  hour  of 
death  at  Samoa,  —  make  brilliant  chapters  in 
the  history  of  the  United  States  navy  in 
Asiatic  waters,  crowned  by  Dewey's  achieve- 
ments at  Manila. 

Now,  in  the  ordering  of  that  Power  not 
ourselves,  the  main  army  of  the  American 
people  have  come  up  with  the  advance  guard. 
In  the  new  evolution  of  history  in  the  Pacific, 
shall  we  lead  or  be  led  ? 

IS  225 


CHAPTER   XXXIII 

PRECEDENTS    AND    RESOURCES 

WHEN  we  see  what  brain-victories  the 
Dutch  and  English  have  won,  con- 
quering and  holding  millions  of  people  less 
by  force  of  arms  than  by  might  of  mind,  we 
wonder  whether  Americans  also  have  not  the 
character  and  intellect  requisite  to  rule  ten 
millions  of  the  Malay  race.  Apart  from  the 
employment  of  native  troops  for  police  and 
military  work,  it  has  been  argued,  and  reason- 
ably so,  that  a  knowledge  of  Sanscrit  by 
British  scholars  in  India  has  been  worth  to 
Great  Britain  an  army  of  a  hundred  thousand 
men.  It  is  certain  that  the  intellectual  con- 
quest of  the  Malay  language,  the  dialects  of 
Insulinde,  and  of  the  social  customs  of  the 
natives  have  stood  in  little  Holland  in 
potency  as  a  half-dozen  army  corps.  It  will 
be  utterly  vain  for  Americans  to  suppose 
that  by  navy  guns  and  infantry  rifles  and 
territorial  governors,  the  Philippines  can  be 
226 


1 

r 

A»4te^^ 

Precedents  and  Resources 

conquered,  pacified,  and  administered.  The 
greatest  victories  must  be  those  of  brain  and 
virtue.  But  it  is  our  faith  that  we  are  well 
able  to  attempt  the  task. 

Look  at  our  vast  reserves  of  unused  force 
in  educated  men,  graduates  of  Annapolis  and 
West  Point,  —  for  only  a  fraction  of  the  gradu- 
ates educated  at  public  expense  serve  full  pub- 
lic careers.  Look  at  our  armies  of  young  men 
and  women  possessing  a  college  education  and 
special  professional  training.  Look  even  in 
our  army,  among  the  volunteers.  What 
trades,  business,  handicrafts,  expert  ability  are 
not  represented  in  the  ranks  ?  Even  were 
our  men  now  in  Luzon  disbanded  and  set  to 
peaceful  work,  the  requisites  of  industrial  con- 
quest would  be  at  hand.  Despite  the  bad 
politics  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  York,  to 
say  nothing  of  such  varieties  of  governors  as 
Illinois  and  South  Carolina  have  allowed  to 
grow,  we  still  think  it  possible  that  the  Amer- 
ican people  can  produce  the  administrators 
and  their  helpers  who  can  rule  with  honesty 
and  ability  the  new  American  Insullnde. 

For,  on  the  other  side,  the  problem  of  the 
permanent  government  of  the  Philippines  is 
227 


America  in  the  East 

far  from  hopeless.  Here  are  millions  of  men 
waiting,  for  what?  For  justice  and  oppor- 
tunity to  improve  their  condition  of  life. 
They  know  what  the  Spaniard's  rule  was,  and 
what  was  the  power  of  priests  who  were  often 
more  Spanish  than  human,  more  Roman 
than  Catholic.  So  long  as  the  dreamed-of 
self-government  by  natives  means  only  the 
grip  of  the  strongest  hand,  there  will  be  little 
incentive  to  industry  or  improvement  of  life 
among  them ;  but,  once  given  authority 
which  secures  the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest 
number,  education  which  means  opportunity 
for  all,  religion  which  makes  new  and  better 
men  and  a  happier  state  of  society,  then  there 
will  be  quick  response.  To  those  things 
which  can  be  best  understood  at  once,  there 
will  be  speediest  welcome.  Open,  with  trust 
tempered  by  prudence,  the  schools,  courts, 
a  local  army  and  a  navy,  according  to  ability, 
and  life  will  be  worth  living  as  never  before. 
Despite  our  Jeremiahs,  these  are  some  of  the 
blessings  which  American  rule  will  certainly 
bring. 

Wise  statesmanship  will  recognize  founda- 
tions   on    which    to    build.     The     Spanish 
228 


Precedents  and  Resources 

teachers  and  missionaries  have  brought  proba- 
bly five  million  of  the  people  within  the  pale 
of  the  Roman  Catholics.  Yet  it  would  be 
the  dream  of  the  mere  theorizer  to  suppose 
that  only  Catholic  missionaries  would  go  out 
from  the  United  States,  for  wherever  the 
American  flag  floats,  there  is  a  fair  field  and 
no  favor.  There  will  be  no  trampling  on  that 
flag,  even  by  an  archbishop.  There  will  no 
intolerance  and  insults  to  those  outside  of 
another  faith.  All  public  support  to  any- 
thing sectarian  will  be  at  once  withdrawn ; 
but  there  will  be  the  widest  liberty  for  the 
Catholics  to  extend  their  doctrines  and  to 
enlarge  their  fold. 

American  Protestants  can  break  new  ground 
in  those  parts  of  the  archipelago  yet  uncul- 
tivated by  missionaries;  though  we  believe 
they  will  find,  for  a  generation  or  two  to 
come,  their  best  field  in  educational  work, 
rather  than  in  direct  preaching  and  popular 
evangelization.  All  over  the  earth,  the 
Roman  form  of  the  faith  improves  mightily 
under  the  criticism  and  in  the  presence  and 
stimulus  of  reformed  Christianity,  —  based  as 
it  is  on  an  open  Bible  and  teaching  democracy 

229 


America  in  the  East 

In  religion.  So  likewise  Protestants,  so-called, 
are  all  the»  better  for  the  challenge  of  their 
claims  and  the  provocation  to  good  works 
from  Christians  of  the  Roman  cult.  So  also 
it  will  be  in  these  islands,  especially  if  the 
work  of  Christianizing  and  building  up  the 
characters  of  men  is  attended  to,  more  than 
the  desire  to  work  harm  to  rivals. 

American  missionaries  in  the  Caroline 
Islands  have  given  the  world  an  object- 
lesson  of  American  civilization,  even  without 
government  protection.  Here  we  see  the  true 
spirit  of  the  American,  who  looks  at  the 
world  and  humanity  not  with  the  eyes  of  a 
bargain-maker,  politician,  or  economist,  but  in 
the  light  of  those  ideals  of  duty  taught  by  the 
Master.  Here  is  a  case  of  where  men  have 
come,  and  women  too,  and  have  given  the 
people  writing,  books,  literature,  education,  the 
arts  of  life,  hope  for  the  future,  and  a  rule  of 
conduct  that  has  wrought  wonders  within  two 
generations,  until  by  Spanish  aggression  the 
hopeful  enterprise  was  nearly  ruined.  May 
these  islands  soon  be  ours  by  just  acquisition 
and  righteous  control. 


230 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 

OUR    IMPERATIVE    NEED 

FOR  the  government   of  the    Philippine 
people,  we  need  our  best  men  in  all  the 
varied  lines  of  human  ability. 

There  must  be  made,  by  a  better,  civil- 
service  than  we  have  now,  a  real  career  open, 
and  not  a  mere  temporary  position  for  those' 
fitted  to  lead  and  rule.  There  must  be  ^ fair^ 
salaries,  secure  tenure  of  office,  a  pension  on 
retirement,  and  a  reasonable  amount  of  dis- 
tinction and  consideration.  Strange  as  it  may 
seem,  we  cannot  see  why  these  will  not  come. 
Demand  and  supply  react  upon  each  other. 
Our  lamp  of  experience  may  be  small,  and  it 
is,  alas,  still  true,  as  Coleridge  has  taught,  that 
the  lessons  of  history  cannot  be  learned  when 
"  passion  and  party  blind  our  eyes,"  for  then 
"  the  light  which  experience  gives  is  a  lantern 
on  the  stern,  which  shines  only  on  the  waves 
behind  us." 

231 


America  in  the  East 

Yet  there  is  some  patriotism  left  above 
passion  and  party ;  and  because  we  believe 
this,  we  set  our  little  lighted  wick  in  the  re- 
flectors of  British  and  Dutch  history,  so  that 
the  track  ahead  of  us  is  illumined.  Even  in 
going  around  the  curves,  we  can  have  guidance. 
When  we  see  how  these  two  peoples  have  had 
much  the  same  corruption  in  politics,  the 
same  and  probably  worse  party-clamor  and 
passion,  and  yet  have  risen  above  it,  —  the 
sober  sense  and  second  thought  of  the  nation 
prevailing,  —  why  cannot  we  at  least  hope  and 
take  courage  from  the  past  —  our  own  and 
theirs  ?  A  few  years  ago  our  navy  yards  were 
the  nests  of  political  jobbery.  It  is  not  so 
now.  Bad  as  our  politics  may  be,  they  are 
surely  not,  in  the  mass,  worse  than  those  of 
our  fathers,  when  election  day  was  so  often 
the  synonym  with  riot  and  bloodshed. 

Responsibility  sobers  and  develops.  "  New 
occasions  teach  new  duties."  Long  experi- 
ence has  demonstrated  that  the  surest  way  to 
save  a  dying  society  is  to  interest  its  members 
in  some  larger  work.  Awaken  thought  in  the 
great  world-problem  of  missions,  and  there 
follows  enlargement  of  ideas,  liberaHty  of 
232 


Our  Imperative  Need 

pocket,  and  substantial  effort.  The  way  to 
make  a  man  or  a  nation  is  to  give  educative 
responsibilities  —  not  too  much  or  too  many 
at  a  time.  Because  it  is  the  politician's  trick 
—  "  of  an  ancient  and  fish-like  smell/'  easily 
perceived  —  to  divert  attention  from  home- 
needs  by  foreign  war,  must  the  American  of 
^f899^rush  to  the  other  extreme  of  barbed- 
wire  enclosures  and  Chinese  foot-binding? 

We  are  very  far  from  being  satisfied  with 
our  civil  service,  nor  do  we  yet  think  that  our 
governmental  administration,  either  in  gross  or 
detail,  is  what  it  ought  to  be.  We  need  a 
foreign  policy  which  is  not  Democratic,  Repub- 
licanTor^trr^ny  way  partisan,  but  nation^ 
Though  progress  in  this  direction  and  reform 
of  the  civil  service  is  slower  than  we  can  wish, 
it  is  not  so  very  different  from  what  we  note 
in  history,  especially  British  history. 

On  the  printed  page,  we  can  read  in  a  few 
minutes  of  great  movements  and  reforms,  and 
we  may  and  do,  in  spite  of  ourselves,  get  the 
idea  that  in  the  old  days  the  bettering  of 
things  was  not  so  tedious  an  operation,  or 
had  so  many  set-backs  and  discouragements 
as  in  our  time.  But  in  reality  the  road  from 
233 


America  in  the  East 

disease  to  health  is  never  a  straight  one.  Re- 
form does  not  ride  on  the  Empire  State 
Express.  Even  should  it  come,  as  hysteria 
or  a  hurricane,  it  is  more  destructive  than 
wholesome.  While  human  nature  remains  so 
exasperating! y  conservative,  sure  progress  will 
be  slow.  Yet  we  take  hope.  Our  navy  is 
worth  all  the  money  we  have  spent  upon  it, 
if  it  has  demonstrated  no  other  lesson  than 
that  which  it  has  made  patent,  viz.  :  that  right 
training  of  elect  men  in  rigid  courses  of  disci- 
pline, with  noble  traditions  and  the  sanctions 
and  environment  of  honor,  yields  the  most 
satisfactory  results  to  the  nation.  Does  not 
our  regular  army  prove  the  same  thing  ?  Is 
not  our  improved  civil  service,  slow  though 
its  reform  be,  a  proof  of  our  general  claim  ? 
Does  not  even  the  advance  thus  far  made 
encourage  us  to  believe  that  we  have  the 
material  and  the  moral  reserves  for  grappling 
to  the  new  tasks  which  have  been  laid  upon 
us? 

Yet   West    Point    and    Annapolis   do    not 

graduate    all  the  able    men    of  the    country. 

Our  missionaries  do  not  monopolize  all  the 

zeal  and  working  power  in  good  citizenship 

234 


Our  Imperative  Need 

abroad,  though  they  do  set  an  inspiring 
example.  Journalistic  Jeremiahs  would  lead 
one  to  suppose  that  honesty  and  political 
capability  scarcely  existed  within  our  borders. 
Now,  apart  from  the  other  sons  and  daughters 
of  the  republic,  we  have,  as  promising  material, 
an  army  of  young  people,  children  of  army 
and  navy  officers,  professors,  teachers,  doctors, 
who,  with  intellectual  heritage  and  that  splen- 
did self-control  and  reserve  of  force  so  richly 
nourished  in  the  home  of  professional  men, 
think  high  and  have  to  live  plainly  and 
with  wise  economy.  As  in  the  English  civil 
service,  so  we  venture  to  believe  it  will  be 
found  in  ours,  that,  for  the  lifting  up  of  bar- 
barous races,  the  building  of  new  states  with 
Anglo-American  ideals  in  the  Pacific,  and  for 
the  filling  of  the  difficult  posts  of  statesmanship 
and  political  routine,  no  class  of  men  will  fur- 
nish a  larger  contingent  than  the  sons  of 
American   ministers. 

If  we  read  the  past  aright,  the  American 
people  will  not  follow ;  they  will  lead.  No 
theoretical  objections  or  academic  warnings 
will  repress  their  instincts  of  national  develop- 
ment. The  same  motives  which  have  for  a 
235 


America  in  the  East 

hundred  years  impelled  them  will  drive  them 
now  into  new  enterprises,  of  gain  indeed, 
but  also  of  desire  for  mutual  benefit  between 
man  and  man,  of  education,  of  moral  uplift, 
of  spiritual  blessing.  Nor  in  these  will  they 
fail  or  be  discouraged  until  they  have  set 
righteousness  in  the  earth. 


236 


INDEX 


237 


rnd 


ex 


AbEEL,  Dr.  David,  73,  77. 
Adams,  John  Quincy,  159. 
Aidzu,  179. 
Alaska,  28,  205,  218. 
Allen,  Dr.  Henry  N.,  123,  222. 
Allen,  Dr.  Young  J.,  83. 
American  Board  C.  F.  M.,  220. 
American  Commerce,  53,  71. 
American  Firms  in  China,  71,  ici. 
American  Flags,  157,  175. 
American  Foreign  Policy,  87. 
American  Inventions,  104. 
American  Literature,  117. 
American  Missionaries,  49,  76,  no. 
American    Missionaries   in    Hawaii, 

American  Political  Classics,  117. 
American  Text  Books,  116. 
Angell,  J.,  87. 
Anglo-Saxons,  53-57,  212. 
Antarctic  Continent,  223. 
Antisell,  Dr.,  115. 
Apootsae,  155. 

Armstrong,  Samuel,  27,  169,  172. 
Arnold,  Sir  Edwin,  112. 
Arthur,  President,  222. 
Australia,  208. 
Avery,  87. 

Bacon,    Alice    M.,    m,    112, 

120, 155. 

Balboa,  Vasco  Nunez  de,  203. 
Balestler,  Joseph,  221. 


Battles,  174. 

Beggars  of  the  Sea,  9. 

Bell,  Commodore,  192. 

Bent,  Silas,  130,  i66,  223. 

Bernadou,  John  B.,  195. 

Berry,  J.  C,  106,  109. 

Blddle,  Commodore,  164. 

Bingham,  John  A.,  119. 

Black  Tide,  204. 

Blake,  Homer  C,  197. 

Blake,  Wm.  P.,  115. 

Bonin  Islands,  loi. 

Bowditch's  Navigator,  116. 

Bridgman,  Dr.  E.  C,  79. 

British,  25,  48,  191,  232. 

British  and  American  Co-operation, 

54- 
Brooks,  Wm.  P.,  115. 
Brown,  James  Ross,  87. 
Brown,  Rev.  S.  R.,  73,  109,  120. 
Bryan,  Samuel  M.,  108. 
Buckley,  Dr.,  in. 
Buddhism,  68,  94. 
Burlingame,  Anson,  86,  222. 

California,  207. 

Caoutchouc,  38. 
Capron,  Horace,  115. 
Caroline  Islands,  222,  230. 
Casey,  Silas,  197,  199. 
Cassel,  Douglas,  198. 
Cathay,    a    cycle  of,    58,    90,   92, 
207,  213,  223. 


239 


Index 


Catherine,  Queen,  217. 
Catholic  Missionaries,  84. 
Chamberlain,  B.  H.,  II2. 
Chaplin,  W.  S.,  115. 
Chauvinism,  112. 
Chester,  C.  M.,  197. 
China,  54,  58,  61,  62,  65,  21 
Chinamen,  141. 
Chinese,  16,  32,  138. 
Chinese  Decay,  65. 
Chinese  Empire,  61. 
Chinese  in  Hawaii,  128,  144. 
Chinese  Newspapers,  82. 
Chinese  People,  64. 
Chinese  Reformers,  122. 
Chinese  Repository,  79. 
Chino-Japanese  War,    14,  89, 

146. 
Choshiu,  179,  181,  186,  191. 
Christian  Missions,  81,  83. 
Christianity  in  Japan,  105. 
Chronology  of  Japan,  93. 
Civilization,  30,  38. 
Civil  Service,  231. 
Clark,  E.  W.,  115. 
Clark,  W.  S.,  115. 
Cochin-China,  221. 
Coffee,  41. 

Coffin,  Reuben,  loi,  161. 
Coleridge,  231. 
Confederate  Privateers,  181. 
Confucius,  67. 
Constitution  of  Japan,  118. 
Cook,  Captain,  126,  133. 
Cotton,  42. 
Crawford,  J.  U.,  115. 
Crosby,  1 11. 
Culbertson,  M.  S.,  77. 
Cushing,  Caleb,  85,  222. 
Cutter,  J.  C,  lo6,   III,  115. 


109, 


Dana,  James  D.,  223. 

Darien,  203. 

Dashkoff,  217. 

Declaration  of  Independence,  1 27. 

Decoration  Day,  55,  193. 

Denby,  Minister,  88,  222. 

Dennis,  James  S.,  149. 

Devereaux,  James,  158. 

Dewey,  3,  17,  161,  186,  225. 

Diplomatists,  224. 

Dutch,    II,   25,    33,  44,   47,  96, 

127,  157,  180,  188,   191,  215, 

232. 

East  India  Company,  72. 

Eastlake,  E.  W.,  102. 

Eastlake,  F.  Warrington,  120. 

Eldredge,  Stuart,  115. 

English,  47. 

English  in  Japan,  103. 

English-Speaking  Peoples,  44,    50, 

53. 
Expansion,  21. 

Famous  ships,  183. 

Farragut,  David,  159. 
Fenollosa,  £.,  114. 
Feudalism  in  Hawaii,  133. 
Feudalism  in  Japan,  133. 
Finck,  H.  T.»  120. 
Foot-binding,  66. 

Foote,  A.  H.,  169,  171-173,225. 
Formosa,  60,  192,  193. 
Foster,  J.  W.,  88. 
France,  214,  215. 
Fremont,  224. 
French,  180,  188,  191. 
Fukuzawa,  no. 
Furlong,  from  Maine,  183. 
240 


Index 


GeISINGER,  Captain,  164. 

Germany,  215. 

Ginseng,  54,  71,  154,  220. 

Glynn,  J.,  103,  164,  223. 

Goodyear,  37. 

Gordon,  M.  S.,  120. 

Grant,  General,  88. 

Great  Britain,  214. 

Great  Wall  of  China,  66. 

Greey,  Edward,  120. 

JTlALE,  Horatio,  223. 

Happer,  A.  P.,  74. 

Hardy,  A.,  lio. 

Harris,  F.,  120. 

Harris,  Townsend,    13,    104, 

170,  176,  222. 
Harwell,  106. 
Hawaii,  125,  205,  220. 
Hawaiian  Origins,  128. 
Hawthorne,  118. 
Hearn,  L.,  120. 
Heco,  102. 

Hepburn,  J.  C,  iii,  120. 
Hermit  Nations,  22. 
Heusken,  Mr.',  170. 
Hid^yoshi,  9,  95. 
Hildreth,  R.,  120. 
Holcombe,  C,  88. 
Holland,  226. 

Hong-Kong,  54,  164,  167. 
Honolulu,  134. 
House,  E.  H.,  102,  120. 

Imperialism,  3. 

India,  26. 
Insulinde,  26. 

Islands  of  United  States,  19. 
lyeyasu,  95. 
16 


Jackson,  President,  221. 

Janes,  L.  L.,  m. 

Japan,  29,  6i,  75,  145,  209,  211. 

Japanese,  16,54. 

Japanese  History,  94. 

Japanese  in  Hawaii,  128,  145. 

Japanese  Origins,  94. 

Japanese  Reformers,  122. 

Japonism,  93. 

Jefferson,  President,  158. 

Jewett,  F.  F.,  115. 

Jones,  D.  W.  Ap,  115. 

Jones,  T.  Ap  Catesby,  221. 

Jute,  41,  43. 

[69-  Kamakura,  95. 

Kamehameha,  134,  220, 
Kanaka,  135,  136. 
Kang,  83. 
Kearny,  224. 

Kennedy,  Captain,  155,  161. 
Kidd,  Benjamin,  22,  45. 
Kimberly,  L.  A.,  197. 
King,  C.  W.  &  Co.,  101. 
Kltasato,  Dr.,  52. 
Knapp,  A.,  97,  120. 
Knox,  G.  W.,  120. 
Korea,  60,  69,  122. 
Korean  Newspapers,  123. 
Korean  Reformers,  122. 
Ko-tow,  86. 
Kuro  Shiwo,  130,  166. 

L.AFARGE,  J.,  114,  120. 
LeGendre,  C.  W.,  193. 
Legge,  Dr.,  48. 
Leland,  Dr.,  115. 
Li  Hung  Chang,  89. 
Long,  J.  L.,  120. 
241 


Index 


Loti,  P.,  112. 
Low,  F.  F.,  196. 
Lowell,  P.,  120. 
Luzon,  131,  227. 
Lyman,  B.  S.,  115. 

Macaulay,  26. 

McCartee,  D.  B.,  106. 
MacDonald,  R.,  45,  103,  167. 
McDougal,    D.,    103,    181,    186, 

191. 
McKee,  Lieutenant,  aoo. 
Mackenzie,  A.  S.,  192. 
Maclay,  A.  C,  120. 
McLean,  200. 
Magnetic  Needle,  69. 
Malay  Language,  226. 
Malay  Race,  129. 
Manchius,  16. 
Manila,  186. 
Manjiro,  102. 
Marquesas  Islands,  225. 
Martin,  W.  A.  P.,  74,  88. 
Mason,  L.  W.,  iii. 
Mediterranean,  206.' 
Mfeiji,  92. 

Mendenhall,  T.  C,  115. 
Mikado,  92-95. 
Missionaries,  224. 
Monroe,  James,  159. 
Montague,  J.,  127. 
Monuments,   55,    103,    134,    175, 

194. 
Moriyama,  168. 
Morrison,  R.,  71. 
Morse,  E.  S.,  115,  120. 
Munroe,  H.  S.,  115. 
Murray,  D.,  107, 
Muscat,  221. 
Mutsuhito,  92. 


Nagasaki,   96,    loi,  103, 
106,  158,  164,  165. 

Napa,  164. 
Nanking,  83. 
Nantucket,  loi,  158. 
Navy,  234. 
Neesima,  no. 
Newburyport,  223. 
New  China,  90. 
Newspapers,  102. 
New  Zealand,  208. 
Nobunaga,  95. 

Oregon,  207,  224. 
Pacific  Gulf  Stream,  130, 166. 

Pacific  Ocean,  Islands  in,  19. 

Pacific  Ocean,  130. 

Parker,  P.,  75. 

Parkes,  H.,  171. 

Parley,  Peter,  116. 

Paul,  H.  M.,  115. 

Peabody,  Cecil  H.,  115. 

Pearson,  F.,  103,  in,  189,  191. 

Peking,  88. 

Penhallow,  D.  P.,  115. 

Penn,  William,  162, '21 6. 

Perry,  Matthew  C,  49,  92,   114, 

I54>  157,  168,  222,  223. 
Peter,  Czar,  216. 
Philippians,  5-7. 

Philippines,  10,  47,  60,  131,  221. 
Pickering,  C,  223. 
Pierce,  President,  in. 
Pinto,  Mendez,  133. 
Piracy,  54. 
Poi,  139,  140. 
Polk,  President,  162. 
Populations,  206. 
Porter,  D.,  159,  160,  224. 


242 


1^ 


Index 


Portuguese,  laS,  143. 
Portuguese  in  Hawaii,  128. 
Premier  li,  178. 
Price,  Capt.  C,  188. 
Printing,  69. 
Printing  Press,  72,  135. 
Protestant  Missionaries,  84. 
Pruyn,  R.  H.,  iii. 
Pumpelly,  R.,  114. 

Queen  victoria,  196. 

Quinine,  39. 

Randolph,  John,  217. 

Reed,  William  B.,  86. 
Richards,  Miss,  109,  iii. 
Riordan,  R.,  120. 
Rip  Van  Winkle,  62. 
Rittenhouse,  127. 
Roberts,  Edmund,  160,  221. 
Rodgers,  John,  195,  201,  225. 
Russia,  205,  214,  216. 
Russians,  16,  208. 

SaBURO,  Shimada,  179. 
Salem,  223. 
Samurai,  97. 
Sandwich,  Earl  of,  127. 
San  Francisco,  33. 
Sanscrit,  226. 
Sapporo,  115. 
Satsuma,  180. 
Schley,  W.  S.,  197. 
Schroeder,  S.,  198. 
Scidmore,  E.  R.,  120. 
Scott,  M.  M.,  III. 
Scott,  Walter,  171.  . 
Scudders,  48. 
Seoul,  123. 

Seward,  Wm.  H.,  205,  222. 
Shaw,  Maj.  S.,  154. 


Shiba,  Bell  of,  i. 

Shimonoseki,  179,  186,  225. 

Shimonos^ki  Indemnity,  119. 

Shogun,  95. 

Shufeldt,  R.  H.,  2, 122,  154,  201, 

222,  225. 
Siam,  221. 
Sigsbee,  193. 

Simmons,  D.  B.,  106,  120. 
Slavery,  55. 
Smith,  E.  P.,  108. 
Spaniards  in  Hawaii,  126,  134. 
Spices,  32,  33,  35. 
Statistics,  211. 
Stewart,  Captain,  loi. 
Stockton,  Commodore. 
Sturgis,  J.  R.,  155. 

TaI  WEN  KUN,  197,  201. 
Talbot,  Olyphant  &  Co.,  73. 
Talcot,  Miss,  m. 
Talmage,  J.  V.  N.,  80. 
Taoism,  68. 
Taro,  138. 

Tattnall,  T.,  171,  175,  225. 
Taylor,  106. 
Tea,  41,  68,  154. 
Tennyson,  Alfred,  58. 
Terry,  Professor,  iii. 
The  Pei-ho  Forts,  177. 
Tokio,  2,  93,  118. 
Tokugawa,  96,  98. 
Trade,  211. 
Translations,  75,  108. 
Treat,  Ulysses,  115. 
Treaties,  178. 
Treaty  of  Ghent,  217. 
Tropical  Products,  32,  43,  46. 
Tropics,  34,  46,  53,  56. 

243 


Index 


Utopias,  204. 


VeRBECK,  G.  F.,  75,  106,  120. 
Vladivostok,  208. 

WaDDELL,  J.  A.  L.,  115. 
Wadhams,  A.  W.,  198. 
Wainwright,  102. 
Ward,   General,    27,    88-89,  175, 

177. 
Washington,  207,  224. 
Washington,  George,  8,  22. 
West  Indies,  51. 
Whalers,  loi,  102,  158. 
Wheeler,  Dr.  L.  N.,  80. 
Wheeler,  William,  115. 
Whitman,  C.  O.,  115. 

J 


Whitman,  Marcus,  224. 
Whitney,  N.  W.,  115. 
Wigmore,  J.  H.,  120. 
Wilkes,  Commodore,  223 
Williams,  G.  B.,  108. 
Williams,    S.    Wells,   73,   78,   79, 

86,  88,  90,  102,  222, 
Wing,  Yung,  73. 
Women  in  China,  112. 
Women  in  Japan,  H2. 
Wyckoff,  M.  N.,  115. 

YaTOI-TOJIN,  116. 

Yedo,  95. 
Yeh,  171. 
Yokohama,  104. 
Young,  John  Russell,  87. 
Young  China,  90. 


244 


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